THE Scottish Nationalists were indeed incredibly successful in the General Election, especially “now the Scots have gone independent”, as RW Tucker kindly and cogently informed us in his letter printed on May 1.

Anyway, Vivienne Drohan (May 8) asks whether she is being naive by wondering why posters for Nicola Blackwood (Conservative candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon – or Abington, in the case of the “still human”, but less triumphant, Greens) were being displayed in houses in North Oxford and Kidlington – or don.

Yes, she is, though possibly “faussement naive”, as the names of constituencies are, for obvious reasons of expediency, not strictly based on complex and variable geographical areas.

For instance, when I first moved here we were situated in the aforementioned electoral zone, but, a few years later, to the infinite delight of Andrew Smith MP, we became part of Oxford East, despite, as far as I am aware, not having floated down the Isis.

So, while leaders were (permanently or temporarily) resigning right, left and centre, the British could take comfort from the fact that, instead of Labour being held hostage to a regional, independence-seeking party, the PM will be to his backbenchers.

There can be little doubt that a proportionally representative system would be fairer in principle, but would it necessarily function any better in practice? Be that as it may, perhaps such decisions should not be left to an electorate self-evidently still and largely selfishly biased in favour of the status quo.

DAVID DIMENT
Riverside Court
Oxford