IN the aftermath of the local elections and BNP gains, I must confess I have been gratified to see the alarm caused among mainstream politicians at even this relatively insignificant challenge to their power.

Why, they ask, do people vote for this racist party? Although it could be argued that, in today's climate, what constitutes racism is, rather like beauty, very much in the eye of the beholder, a more apt question would perhaps be: Why not?

In fact, why anyone would vote for a mainstream party whose policies have failed us so miserably in the past and promise us only more of the same in the future, is a mystery. The unpalatable truth, which the cosy triumvirate of mainstream parties refuse to face, is that there is not, and never has been a liberal consensus in this country.

Resentment has developed over time, not just against immigration per se, but about increasingly draconian race legislation and the antics of the Commission for Racial Equality, about suppression of free speech and accusations of intolerance levelled at anyone who dares to oppose the prevailing politically-correct ethos.

Tolerance, however, rather like an elastic band, can only be stretched so far before it breaks. I fear, for many, that point has been reached and the results are all too evident.

JOYCE N PLUMMER, Accrington (full address received).