We consider a finite element method with symmetric stabilisation for the discretisation of the transient convection–diffusion equation. For the time-discretisation we consider either the second order backwards differentiation formula or the Crank–Nicolson method. Both the convection term and the associated stabilisation are treated explicitly using an extrapolated approximate solution. We prove stability of the method and the t2+hp+12 error estimates for the L2-norm under either the standard hyperbolic CFL condition, when piecewise affine (p=1) approximation is used, or in the case of finite element approximation of order p≥1, a stronger, so-called 4/3-CFL, i.e. t≤Ch4/3. The theory is illustrated with some numerical examples
