It is easy to be smug looking across to France and the astonishing success of the National Front to conclude it could never happen here.

Easy but wrong.

You have only to note the success of the British National Party in northern towns such as Oldham to see the warning signs.

Britain has never had much truck with Fascism, either ignoring it or tending to treat it as something of a joke.

Most of the far Right candidates in council or parliamentary elections receive derisory numbers of votes which place them among the lunatic fringe.

Sussex, often thought to be a Right-wing county, has been home to many leading figures on the far Right.

They include the Hancocks of Brighton, who for years ran a printing press, and John Tyndall, former head of the British National Party, whose base was in Hove.

But there is a sharp difference between Right wing and far Right, which has meant this county traditionally voting Tory in large numbers while eschewing Fascist parties.

The only places where the extreme Right does moderately well are those with severe social problems and racial discord.

These days they tend to be down-at-heel former industrial towns but, in the past, their efforts were often concentrated on London.

I grew up in west London, living only a few doors away from Martin Webster, who later turned out to be a leader of the National Front.

I watched him change from a member of a devout Roman Catholic family to a man whose office in Notting Hill gave pride of place to a picture of Hitler. Later his parents settled in Brighton but I never discovered what they thought of him.

Also active in Notting Hill, because there was unrest and racial tension, was the best-known British fascist of all, Sir Oswald Mosley.

He was probably the most charismatic public speaker I have ever heard and it was easy to see how susceptible people could have been swayed by him.

Mosley was an able and intelligent man. It was a 20th Century tragedy that a politician who could have led either major party in the Twenties instead became a reviled figure, peddling racial hatred.

Even in North Kensington with all its social problems, people never fell for his beguiling oratory in a big way. In the 1959 General Election, Mosley polled more than 2,000 votes but was easily beaten by the Labour MP and his Conservative rival.

In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen has made progress by appealing to the baser instincts of the public.

His puffed-up patriotism, with the message of France for the French, also excludes millions of immigrants who have settled over there.

Why did he fare so well in the first round of the French presidential election?

He was the beneficiary of a bizarre election system which gives far too much credibility to small parties.

The Socialists, whom Le Pen narrowly defeated, suffered by many voters splintering off to support obscure sects.

The same apathy that proved a malaise in last year's General Election here affected France.

Polling was low because people are generally prosperous and they were tired of the elderly leaders of the two main factions, President Chirac and Lionel Jospin.

In a bid to broaden their appeal, they became blander and more boring, as has happened in Britain. But extremists are never apathetic and they continued to vote for the clear alternative offered by the National Front.

It's all very well for millions of people to demonstrate against the result when many of them never bothered to vote.

Len Pen achieved his remarkable result through a democratic voting system even though it was flawed.

Now even the Left will have to swallow its pride by urging everyone to vote for Chirac despite his age and the uncomfortable whiff of scandal which clings to his elegant coat tails.

Nothing else but a drubbing for Le Pen in the second round will do to convince the world that France is not going Fascist.

Many people, including thousands in Sussex, have the chance to vote in local elections next month.

They should turn out and vote for decent candidates, ignoring extremists of Left and Right, to show Britain, too, is a mature and sensible democracy.

We should also resist siren calls for changes in the voting system that would give pockets of power to tiny, unappetising minorities.