FAR too many politicians suffer from what I call "the daffodil syndrome". They blow with the wind, this way and that, depending on the weather in their focus groups.

You could not say that about Edward Heath who announced this week that after 50 years as an MP he will be stepping down at the next election. Mr Heath knew his own mind and wasn't afraid to speak it. He was a man of principle and had definite opinions that couldn't be swayed.

Only when politicians die do their opponents talk about how much they respected them despite not agreeing with them. This week, very few have had bad words to say about Mr Heath - and yet he is still very much alive.

Mr Heath shows the difficult line politicians have to tread. If they are too dogmatic, they are accused of being out of touch. If they are too flexible, they are accused of suffering from the daffodil syndrome.

Yet there are occasions which demand firm leadership, and Mr Heath supplied that. He took over the Conservative Party from Sir Alec Douglas-Home when it was in crisis in 1965. He had the nerve to sack Enoch Powell for his "rivers of blood" speech, and managed to win the 1970 General Election against most expectations. Then, largely with the help of backbench Labour rebels, he took Britain into Europe.

You knew where you stood with Ted. He has left a legacy of lasting argument about Europe - but at least he knew where he was going and why. But his inflexibility brought him into conflict with the miners and dragged the country into a three-day week. It cost him the 1974 election.

And here's the difficulty. Margaret Thatcher was admired for the arrogant way she got things done, but she is regularly accused of being out of touch. Edward Heath will come to be admired for the single-minded way he got things done, but he is now regarded in some quarters as a traitor who sold his nation to the Europeans.

Perhaps the public can also learn something from his career: are we not a little hypocritical when we demand the smack of firm leadership from our politicians and then condemn them for lack of flexibility.

EDWARD Heath must also have taught William Hague a thing or two. When Mrs Thatcher took over as party leader from Mr Heath, she must have thought that she would never leave in such controversial circumstances as she did.

Mr Heath said "rejoice, rejoice" at her going, and has been roundly condemned by members of his own party ever since. It is as if they have had to kill his name before they could kill the man.

Although John Major subsided meekly beneath Mr Blair's landslide, Mr Hague must have learned that his is a party which deposes its leaders in the most brutal coups and then turns on their reputations.

In contrast, Labour's past leaders are held with a deal of affection: Jim Callaghan, Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock are warmly regarded in their own party, and John Smith has almost been deified.

BILLIONAIRE Michael Ashcroft took his seat in the House of Lords this week. He has lived the last 20 years in Florida and Belize in tax exile.

MPs, even Cabinet ministers and Prime Ministers, are beholden to their constituencies for their position. Without votes, they are nothing. Similarly, peers like Lord Sawyer and Lord Mackenzie are there because of the respect they have earned from the way they have done their jobs.

Other than bankroll the Conservative Party, what has Lord Ashcroft - who had to be forced to return to this country - ever done for Britain? Why is he now in a position to rule over us?

YESTERDAY I was amazed to see a horse tethered to a lamp-post on a busy road in Hartlepool. Someone had even put a ring of bollards around it. Why was it there? After a horse roundabout, next I really expect to see a zebra crossing.