GLASGOW Rangers are the soccer champions in Scotland (once again), Manchester United are the English champions (once again) and the Tory pary seems to be in continual terminal decline.

Just as it is not healthy for the game of Association Football to be dominated in England and Scotland by these two giants, it is not good for British democracy for the membership of this political party to be at its lowest level since World War I.

Equally, the decline in membership of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties reflects a grassroots disaffection (or perhaps a grinding boredom) with the whole process of government.

Increasingly, people see themselves as having little influence in law-making, their views as having no impact on political direction and local issues being repeatedly subservient to national dogma.

In 1952 Tory party membership topped three million, at the height of Margaret Thatcher's premiership it was about one million, now it stands at about three hundred thousand (and still falling).

One unfortunate result of this decline is that candidates for Tory representation in the House of Commons will inevitably be drawn from a diminishing pool.

Another result of these ever decreasing circles is that you disappear from (not to say up) your own constituency.

Why did it come as not particularly surprising that Manchester United have recently tried to spend £19million (that's £19 with six noughts after it) on a new player?

This eclipses the previous record of £15 million paid by Newcastle United for Alan Shearer, but at least he was English (not being xenophobic, or anything).

This ability by a club further to strengthen an already pre-eminent situation does not bode well for the English game, or for the Scottish league in the case of Glasgow Rangers.

Likewise with the Conservative party.

I cannot envisage any situation where I would become a member of that party (I will remain a socialist in the Christian sense and would vote for a candidate of any party who might espouse and provide evidence of adherence to those values) but I would encourage the existence of any alternative to a government in office.

There are socialists who are Tories, Labourites and Lib Dems and I will not deny their party political allegiance. I have to admit that I am not an enthusiast of party politics.

I mistrust those who belong to political parties.

I suspect members of political parties who wholeheartedly endorse manifestos regardless sometimes of commonsense.

However, usually the electorate has a choice of three, sometimes more, mainstream political candidates.

It is this choice that acts as a safety net when the party of government begins to regard itself as omnipotent and unanswerable to the people (as in the case of the Conservatives at the last election).

Unfortunately, the sense of perceived decline, the election of a lacklustre leader and falling membership have combined to render the Tories unfocussed and weak.

If we are not mindful of these circumstances, like Zimbabwe, we will become, ipso facto, a one-party state.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.