weelittledrummer, I am not a conservative (as if that needed spelling out) so it's not really my business, but I've never understood the contempt John Major atracted.

To me, a socialist, he was an ordinary decent bloke, born into circumstances that gave him no advantage whatsoever, who made it to the top on the strength of his own ability and who tried to do his best for his country by his own lights. That's quite a lot more than could be said for the present leader of the Labour Party, which is why I refused to campaign for Labour in the 97 election.

Moreover Major was not a loser in any meaningful sense. Thanks to our crazy voting system, it was his lot to govern with a tiny-to-nonexistant majority, despite the Tories getting more votes in 92 than those that got Labour its landslide in 97. And Major could hardly be blamed for 97 - by then Labour was wearing Tory clothes, promising to stay wtihin Tory spending limits (which the then Tory chancellor Ken Clarke has admitted even the Tories would not have done).

Getting back to the subject: anyone who, like Timbo, might be thinking of voting BNP as "a warning shot" should remember that Hitler was elected, and no doubt many of the votes he got were intended as "warning shots." When he was asked to form a government it was because he was the only party leader in a position to do so. It was only after becoming chancellor that he changed the rules.