Richard, I was not talking about the UK. I was talking about Canada. We've had a 3 or 4 party system in Canada for my entire lifetime. Of those 3 or 4 there have always been 2 dominant parties (Liberals and Conservatives (formerly PCs), but the smaller parties have also played a key role in forming coalitions and influencing government policy. We owe the creation of our Canadian health care system to iniatives pioneered and advanced by a 3rd party...the former CCF, now called the NDP.

Bobert - Everyone does what they are best suited to. Van Gogh painted. Dylan wrote songs. Baez used her great talents to advance progressive social and political philosophy. Each person does what their spirit moves them to do, and that's just fine with me, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. I think Bob made a great contribution writing the songs he did, and that's good enough for me. He would have been totally miserable doing what you seem to have wanted him to, it wouldn't have suited him at all, he'd have felt out of place and uncomfortable, and it wouldn't have worked. Fortunately, like Joan, he had the guts to follow his own vision, not to be ruled by the voices of others in his ears who'd have been only too happy to use him in the way they thought "best"...

You know how hard Bob tried to escape wearing that mantle of "leader of the movement" and "social prophet", Bobert? He did anything possible to escape it, because it would have destroyed him. He hated being stuck with that label.