Before last week's free vote in the British Parliament public-opinion polls were showing that about 70 per cent of the population favoured a return of capital punishment. However, when the division came the proposal was rejected by a 145-vote majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, confounding the pundits' predictions of a close vote. BRITAIN VOTES AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), 1983)