We're all making plans for Nigel

Burn him at the stake? Make him Prime Minister? The former definitely the opinion of the other political parties; the latter the gut feeling of many of their electorate. By tapping into the zeitgeist of uninformed prejudice which lurks just below the surface of a large body of the British people, he has, seemingly even to his own astonishment, sent profound shock waves through the establishment.

Looking exactly like his own Spitting Image model, Nigel has exposed a rich and powerful vein in "public opinion". It's not the anti-European sentiments; most people don't give a toss about that. No, I'm afraid it's the racism, despite the fact that Nigel and his cronies preface every remark they utter with the phrase "I'm not a racist". They protest too much, I fancy. The fact is, all over the country people have noticed they come across more and more people of exotic origin sharing the streets with them: jabbering into their phones in some impenetrable language, women with nothing but their eyes showing, shopping in new ethnic stores which are springing up all over our high streets. And they don't like it. They reckon our "way of life" is being destroyed, missing the point that foreign immigration adds more to our society than it takes away. But you won't win many votes saying that right now.

As a dispassionate observer of the political scene, the local election results on Friday were absolutely fascinating, not least for the squirming seen from all the other parties as they backtracked furiously from their "bunch of clowns" outbursts, now looking seriously insulting since 26% of the voters didn't agree with that assessment.

Nigel is right to say what happened on Thursday marked a sea change in British politics. The trouble is, it's an extremely worrying one. If we give these boys their head in a General Election and they make significant inroads by, say, winning more seats than the Lib Dems, which seems highly likely, our country will be much worse off as a result. And whose fault will that be? Yours, if you're dumb enough to give them your vote.