Defeated, routed, destroyed, massacred. That is what happened to Britain's governing Conservative Party on Thursday night. As a respected columnist put it on Friday morning: ``The British voter put to nought every threat, every fear, every trumped-up charge, every scream of morning, every promise of doom the Tories could invent and quietly did what every opinion poll said they would do: tell John Major and his shabby, busted government to get stuffed.''

By 10 p.m. the first exit poll predicted a Labour landslide. By midnight, the polls had shown there would a Labour landslide. And by 1 o'clock on the morning of May 2, one commentator described Major's party as a ``minority English party''. It had been wiped out of Scotland and was in the process of being wiped out of Wales. In England, they lost their defence secretary and even lost Margaret Thatcher's old seat in Finchley, and Enoch Powell's in Wolverhampton.

Before mid-day on Friday, Major, who retained his Huntingdon seat with a handsome majority, announced that he would step down as party leader, sooner, rather than later. In a characteristically dignified speech, Major said: ``When the curtain falls it's time to go and that is what I propose to do.'' Shortly, after that he was on his way to see the Queen to tender his resignation as prime minister as Michael Gerson's firm of removers busied itself, clearing 10, Downing Street, of Major's belongings. His first afternoon out of power will be spent eating lunch at the Oval Cricket Ground and watching a match between Surrey and Combined Universities.

Party leaders and MPs have gone into hiding since Major's announcement. Hours before he made it, many were happy to ``endorse'' his ``decision'' not to resign the leadership, giving the party time to recover from the election defeat and negotiate its way to a leadership election. One MP, who has held his seat, and would be keen on an early challenge is John Redwood, a former Welsh secretary, who challenged John Major's leadership last year. Redwood kept himself at a distance from the party since he was defeated in his challenge. Former Chancellor of Exchequer Kenneth Clarke also threw his hat in the ring. But with the main right-wing competition, Michael Portillo, out of the running, he is likely to want to make an early bid.

On Thursday night, acknowledging his party's defeat, the prime minister said: ``We are a great and historic party. We have had great victories in our time. We accept them both I hope with a certain dignity and grace.

Tonight we have been comprehensively defeated.'' Unfortunately, the Conservative Party members have accepted defeat, but they have not been very dignified about it.

Recriminations started long before the results were out. Before 2 in the morning, with less than half the results declared, the Tory Reform Group which represents the left-wing of the party, blamed the rank treachery of the Conservative right-wingers. They said it was a ``vile campaign of hatred against John Major and his administration''. Nicholas Winterton, an MP opposed to closer ties with Brussels, blamed Kenneth Clarke for refusing to rule out the possibility of joining the single European currency. Winterton said: ``He will be remembered, even reviled in history, for his actions.'' Both sentiments laid bare the deep divisions over Europe that have dogged John Major's six-and-a-half years in office.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.