"Very well! I'll have some kippers! I'll have some kippers!"

Chris Hughes has mailed Creamguide with his recollections of the 1992 general election:

"BBC Parliament's forthcoming re-run has already brought back grim memories of that grim era, not least a rather downbeat inquest into the result during one politics tutorial at university. 'I genuinely think we're in for a thousand years of Tory rule!' declared our eminent tutor. Of course, if I was Mark Steel, at this point I'd triumphantly say, 'and that prediction is still holding good!'

"See also: getting disproportionately annoyed at someone anonymously putting up Conservative Party posters in the TV lounge at our halls of residence, and me anonymously tearing them down so I didn't have to watch Netbusters while surrounded by sheets of A3 smugly decrying something called 'Paddy's Roundabout'."

I was still at school in 1992, but had the privilege of voting all the same thanks to a Newsround-endorsed mock election, the like of which hadn't been tried before and assuredly was never attempted again.

Labour stormed home, with the Greens in second place ("think global, act local!") and the Liberal Democrats third, all helped by boasting candidates who were either everyone's mate or who everyone fancied. Somebody stood as an Independent, which was as good as saying they'd been too late to sign up for any of the other parties, and who subsequently polled in single figures. The Tories were fourth, helmed by a professional geek whose dad was in local government or something, and who delivered his hustings speech at our weekly assembly with his head buried entirely in a piece of crumpled paper promising "tax cuts for all!"

The day after the real thing, our science teacher was so pissed off she gave us all double homework, as it if were somehow our fault.

Still, the official fightback wasn't long in coming, with Stephen and Hugh leading the charge. "Brandy and soda?" "Good God no, far too early in the day for...for soda..."