AS you and some of your regular readers may have noticed, I am all in favour of free speech, even if it does occasionally (Letters, September 11) cause me a spot of bother at the most unlikely of times.

The Oxford Mail is correct in stating that Godfrey Bloom’s slurs have darkened rather than wrecked the UKIP conference (September 21).

All political parties have their outspoken (tongue-in-cheek?) buffoons and I suspect that, come next May, let alone the General Election, this character will be largely forgotten, as there are far more serious issues at stake, at least for the sensible.

Nigel Farage – and may we have some consensus regarding on which syllable his surname should be stressed? – will probably at the end of the day, for better or worse, have increased his personal popularity and that of his party by condemning his colleague’s comments and recommending the Whip to be withdrawn from him.

I am unsure whether we can look forward to the predicted electoral ‘earthquake’ but I dare say UKIP will be responsible for a few significant tremors, with ensuing trembling, over the next few years.

David Diment, Riverside Court, Oxford