CONFUSED rightwing populism is more or less the default position for public opinion in this country. I’ve always believed that lefties are making a mistake when they blame the Daily Mail and the Sun for that state of affairs; the reality is that these newspapers sell shedloads precisely because they articulate the prejudices they in turn help to sustain.

Opposition to immigration - predominantly of the ‘I’m not a racist, but …’, variety – is an important component of the package, and that fact has not been lost on politicians.

In particular, the Tories have frequently attempted to capitalise on such sentiments, a strategy explicitly recommended by current health secretary Andrew Lansley in his 1990s days as a policy wonk. But as demonstrated by pronouncements by Jack Straw and (somewhat more overtly) by Phil Woolas, Labour has not always been immune from playing in the dirt.

Remember also the various attempts to talk up Britishness witnessed under New Labour. Thankfully, Gordon Brown’s flag-waved rhetorical calls for a ‘national day’ seem to have quietly been dropped.

Given such a starting point, nobody should be surprised at the claim that half the population would ‘consider supporting’ an anti-immigration soft nationalist party, as demonstrated by the findings of a poll conducted for Searchlight. Why wouldn’t they?

But don’t forget, there is plenty of difference between hurriedly telling a pollster how you might vote when faced with a range of hypothetical options, and actual practice at election time.

The UK Independence Party is, to all intents and purposes, the kind of formation to which the question refered. Its best performance has been the 16% it picked up in the 2009 European elections, a low turnout affair that gives full scope to ‘send a message’ voters.

That fell to around 3% in the subsequent Westminster contest, although that still made them the fourth largest party in terms of vote share. I guess much of the difference is accounted for by the harsh realities of first past the post. AV could bolster UKIP’s support, but is unlikely to extend it dramatically.

The moral of the Searchlight survey is not that tomorrow belongs to the far right, as Ed West in the Daily Telegraph patently seems to hope, but that the political system as current constituted is doing a good job of containing such pressures as things stands.