Tories win Henley by four lengths

No surprises in Henley, as the leafy Oxfordshire constituency handed the Conservatives a romping by-election victory considered such a foregone conclusion by most of the national press that they didn't bother to report on it until today.

It was not even surprising that the Labour vote languished in fifth place - there were never likely to be many sympathy votes in the white gravel drives and twin-sets by the Thames. What was most alarming was not that Labour was beaten hollow by its two main competitors and the Greens, but that it was beaten by the BNP.

When the governing party is outperformed by a group of racist thugs, alarm bells should be ringing all over the country...