IN STAGNANT pools, scum thrives. Recently, British politics has been stagnating. There are no big ideas. Fewer and fewer people join political parties. Turnout is in decline; the Iraqis are keener on voting than we are.

This is partly because many people see no alternative to a discredited government. Not that Tony Blair will mind. The voters are feeling cynical, disillusioned, cheerful and prosperous — just what he would like them to feel.

But even if the Tories seem incapable of exploiting the discontents of stagnation, other groups can. These days anyone with an anorak, an obsession and a sense-of-humour bypass can have a political career. As the Liberal Democrats cannot accommodate all such characters, some of them have found other outlets, such as the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

The UKIP claims that it is the only party that will stand up to Europe. A lot of people give it credence. At the last European Parliament elections the UKIP came top of the anoraks division, winning more seats than the Liberal Democrats.

It is unlikely that this caused dismay in Brussels any more than in Downing Street. In both those capitals of anti-Britishness, they know that a settled majority of UK opinion is sceptical about Europe. That cannot be eroded, but if the UKIP could create a civil war within the Eurosceptic camp, it might be divided and confounded.

Lenin found the phrase to describe UKIP supporters: “Useful idiots.” In the case of several of its MEPs, “useful” would be an overstatement. But there was one exception to the general run of messianic mediocrity.

Robert Kilroy-Silk had been a Labour MP and a chat-show host. He is the perpetual president of the British Association of Sunlamp Manufacturers. With such a distinguished CV, he assumed he was joining the UKIP in order to lead it. To his outrage, the others did not agree. Dowdy birds resent plumage. His colleagues accused him of overweening vanity. They have a point. This is the man who put the “nit” into vanity.

In response, Kilroy overweened off and set up his own party. Chairman, Mr Toad; entertainment by Mr Toad; politics Mr Toad’s. It is to be launched tomorrow. For the title, he has chosen a Latin word, Vanitas — no, sorry, Veritas, meaning truth. If he wanted Latin, he could have picked a shorter word: ego meaning Robert Kilroy-Silk.