Reducing the Tory majority - and of course it is really further reducing the Tory minority - is the big story, without a doubt, but if they were convinced they would lose it anyway, putting up the guy who was forced to step down was quite a good way of confusing the story. The seat has been LibDem or Tory for a long time, so a Libdem win can be presented as unexceptional. Figuring out the blend of a normal change, local issues, Brexit, Boris, Labour losses (as opposed to votes loaned to LibDem), assertion that the guy who was rejected had to go ... Very hard to isolate how much is due to what.

I am slightly disappointed in the Monster Raving Loony Party - they were not quite Raving and Loony enough, so let UKIP get the most loony position.