Sir – While I agree with John Howson’s view that our voting system should be more proportional (Letters, May 9), his references to politics and horse races are strange, to say the least, given his election material over the last year.

In the recent county council election and last year’s city council election, in both of which Mr Howson stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate, he claimed consistently in all his literature that the election was a “two-horse race between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives”.

In the county council election, the Conservatives came fourth, behind the Labour and Green candidates. In the city council election, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives came third and fourth respectively, behind the winning Labour candidate, James Fry and the Greens.

Either Mr Howson knows nothing about elections or horse racing, or perhaps both. I only hope he didn’t place any bets.

I know why Mr Howson made these claims during both elections but the outcomes prove that you cannot fool all the people, all of the time. Let’s have more honesty in local elections in future.

Stuart Skyte, Oxford