BNP,Sackcloth And Ashes

Here, in the Telegraph, is Alistair Darling self-flagellating about the BNP winning two seats in the European parliament, with a bit of grovelling from David Cameron towards the end.

A sense of proportion might not go astray here. They won two seats having received fewer votes than they did in the 2004 Euro elections.

I spoke to somebody I know last week who voted BNP, he did it because so many national figures were obsessively telling people not to. His reasoning was: "If this shower of dodgy MPs and ministers keep telling me not to do it, with their track record of thieving and lying, then I will do it just to teach them a lesson". He will no more vote for them in a serious election than I would.

The vote for smaller parties dropped and,let's face it, UKIP have done nothing in serious elections since their success in 2004. So I am hardly bracing myself for Griffin to be the next Prime Minister.

Rather than mainstream politicians blaming the electorate, or even the BNP, they need to take a good, long, hard look at themselves and, for once in their extremely well paid and cushy careers, actually take responsibility.