THOUGHTS of the general election are pervasive. True, it needn't happen until next May. But there are daily reminders that impending encounter with the electorate is Major's all consuming concern.
As he patiently awaits an outbreak of the feel good factor, the prime minister strides purposefully down the populist track, while "New Labour" spokesmen struggle to keep alongside. And the search for popular approval isn't always negative or nasty.
Mr Major's latest big idea is to begin lobbying to bring the World Cup competition to England in 2002, for the most part, the scramble to assess and "lead" the mood can prove an unedifying spectacle.
yesterday, a Labour MP announced he is to hold talks with police chiefs in the Midlands about the launch of a pilot scheme to test the idea of a night time "curfew" for the under 10s. He is plainly unmoved by the torrent of criticism, from Labour MPs and others, which fell on shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw's proposal for a similar approach to crime prevention among the under 16s.
But Mr Blair may be relieved none of his number has yet been tempted to push the "H" button. Homophobia is a brutal, sometimes life threatening, experience for the victim. And if reports of anti gay and lesbian violence and harassment don't always evoke widespread public sympathy, there have been signs of shifting attitudes and greater awareness among the establishment.
It wasn't all that long ago that Mr Major encouraged hopes of a new enlightenment when he invited gay rights activist, Sir Ian McKellen, to tea at Number 10. And the co operation of the gay community in the police hunt for Colin Ireland, who picked up a number of men in gay bars and murdered them several years ago, was regarded by many as a watershed. But there was little evidence of that new mood in Major's outspoken attack on the National Lottery Charities Board for giving "ill judged" grants to a number of groups working with gays and lesbians, as well as prostitutes and asylum seekers.
The National Heritage Secretary, Virginia Bottomley, yesterday called on the board to explain itself, amid headlines about "loony lottery grants" and editorials fearing "public benevolence" could be turned a bad joke.
On Tuesday the board announced grants totalling £159 million to various "good causes". In the Lottery's first year, a total of £1.4 billion has been granted. But Mrs Bottomley reportedly "went ballistic" when she heard that grants totalling an estimated £225,000 had been awarded to the Scottish Prostitutes Education Board, the West Midlands Anti Deportation Campaign, the Leicester Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Centre, and the Gay and lesbian London Policing organisation.
The latter group, Galop, monitors the policing of the capital's gay community and provides crucial advice to the Metropolitan Police. As a result of that relationship, all 60 divisions in London have appointed lesbian and gay liaison officers. But despite the improved atmosphere, Galop confirmed yesterday the overwhelming number of victims of harassment and abuse still do not report offences to the police.
Galop's helpline deals with an estimated 500 reports of cases a year.
In the past 12 months, 65 per cent of callers have refused to come forward to the police, while 84 per cent of those who did said they were dissatisfied and still considered the police to be homophobic.
Those who call the helpline have run the full gamut from ongoing verbal abuse to excrement through the letter box. "Queer bashing" and car crime appear concentrated around known gay venues - the calculation being precisely that the victims are less likely to go to the police. And exclusion and isolation in the workplace exist alongside the intrusion of hate mail and malicious telephone calls in the home.
Staff at Galop yesterday said they were "initially surprised" by Mr Major's outburst, then "very disappointed" and "after that disgusted". That will hardly register great alarm among Tory planners and managers, whose happy assessment may be that the rumpus helped divert attention from damaging headlines about the latest party rebellion over Europe. But that will be no consolation to the next victim who takes a kicking on the streets of a society still a great deal less tolerant than Mr Major once said he wished to see.