Environmentalists have made common cause with the government, but they may find that, despite its failings, the consortium was greener than Gazprom will be.

ECONOMIST: Russian energy

Latterly, the reluctance of his party first to make common cause with the Scottish Nationalists, then to put euthanasia in its manifesto, made him choose in 2001 to stand, not altogether gloriously, as an independent.

ECONOMIST: Ludovic Kennedy