IN THIS world, there are a handful of brave people willing to stand up for opinions that almost everyone else considers laughable – the world is flat, the moon landing was faked or even that the Royal Family are lizards.

One such courageous individual is Labour politician John Tanner.

He recently wrote to your paper to argue that, despite all the signs otherwise, it is Labour and not the Liberal Democrats who have the best chance of unseating Oxford West and Abingdon’s Conservative MP Nicola Blackwood. However, talk is cheap.

Rather that listening to what politicians like him are saying, we should look at what people with money on the line are doing. For this reason, I would give more credence to Ladbrokes making Labour 50/1 outsiders than to Cllr Tanner’s wishful thinking.

MARK MILLS Hanoi, Vietnam