At the polling station on May 3, the chap who handed me a ballot paper couldn’t repress a wry smile and a chuckle, when I remarked to myself “Oh, I’ve forgotten my glasses, but it won’t matter, they’re all the same”.

Mick Haines and Marston voters scored an impressive victory in the recent elections, which will hopefully encourage electors and produce future independents.

Councillor Haines will doubtless discover how adherents of major political parties behave, so he will at times require the qualities of a political street fighter.

I wish him luck.

It is argued that political parties– like democracy and old-fashioned forms of nationalism – are becoming mere fictions outliving their historical purpose. If so, it poses serious questions for Britain’s future.

If old career path parties become increasingly defunct, independents will gain; and as explained by M Hugh-Jones (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, May 8) they will fit best into local rather than national politics.

Newer parties (UKIP currently most prominent), bent on more wholesale change, may with greater understanding reform, solidify and grow in numbers and influence, and eventually provide natural homes for independents.

STEPHEN WARD, Tudor Close, Oxford