IN response to the incoming leader of Oxfordshire County Council’s comments following last week’s election results, I feel able only to respond with the following comments of my own.

Ouch, Ian Hudspeth! Sour grapes! You term yourself a Conservative politician and yet the principle that an individual’s responsibility is to themselves seems to be beyond the grasp of your understanding.

No-one in an election is ever disenfranchised, except by way of their own action, or inaction.

If someone chooses not to register to vote or, having registered, chooses not to vote, then that is their responsibility.

If someone arrives at the polling station and discovers that a particular candidate, or party, that they assumed would be there, is not, then that is the result of their choice to forego an active political life.

The people of West Oxfordshire who did just that last Thursday could have just walked away without voting.

Instead, they took responsibility for themselves and made a choice from the candidates that were there and, just because they didn’t choose you and that meant you didn’t get what you wanted, that is no reason for you to try to start blaming anyone but yourself.

I would suggest, instead of whining, you realise what happened, accept what happened, and learn from what happened. That is what listening to the electorate is actually about.

Do it and apply what you learn in future and, who knows, you might end up a happier person next time around, because the voters may have chosen you.

GORDON CUTTING Ticknell Piece Road Charlbury