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No one to vote for

WITH reference to the Swindon Advertiser Comment on May 4 I would willingly cast my vote if there was a choice of candidates.

Having foisted parish councils on us, I feel at the very least the Conservatives could have made sure that they had sufficient candidates to put forward. One cannot of course assume that there will be independent candidates wishing to stand.

When I arrived at the polling station I was confronted with a requirement to put my cross in three boxes.

There were three Labour candidates and one Green Party candidate who did not seem to have even bothered to put out election literature.

For the first time in more than 40 years I did not vote for any candidates but spoilt my ballot paper.

So much for democracy.

AMANDA DINGLE, Ipswich Street, Swindon

Don’t meddle in politics

CENTURIES ago Prince Albert advised his young Queen Victoria never to meddle in politics. It is an interesting sideline to note that during her reign more than 50 Republican clubs grew up in England.

Naturally, she was carrying on the previous monarch’s tradition (post Charles 1) of meddling with the governance of the country which, as a constitutional monarch, she had no right to do.

Apparently the present incumbent’s nephew, David Armstrong-Jones, the 2nd earl of Snowdon, and a multi-millionaire, is refusing to tow the party line, and wants to become a member of the House of Lords.

By doing so he has incurred the Queen’s displeasure because she does not want him to meddle in politics - can you believe it?

The hypocrisy of Mrs Windsor is overbearing. This woman, like her son, Charles, constantly interferes in the governance of the UK – looking after her own interests, not ours.

It is interesting to note the author of the award-winning series The Crown, who did an immense amount of research on the Queen, labels her ‘an out-of-touch bigot.’

JEFF ADAMS, Bloomsbury, Swindon

More vets found

I WOULD like to thank your newspaper for publishing my letter about Remembrance Travel’s search for all surviving D-Day veterans.

Thanks to the media’s support we’ve managed to find four more times more veterans for this year’s tours to Normandy than we ever have before.

This year we shall running a further five trips.

In addition to the Normandy tours, we shall also be offering D-Day veterans, especially those who are no longer fit to travel to France, the chance to visit the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire on the anniversary of D-Day in June.

All of these tours have been enabled by the Treasury, thanks to LIBOR fines, which pay for a veteran, carer and a member of the family to join a tour free of charge.

NICHOLA ROWLANDS, Remembrance Travel, Royal British Legion