Ben Seifert, who quit the Conservatives warning that party has been ‘taken over by a cult’

• I FEEL great sym­pathy for Conservative candidate Ben Seifert who, like me, has gone full circle, (Conservative election candidate quits with warning that party has been ‘taken over by a cult’, September 12).

I had my first vote in 1964 at the age of 25. I was not eligible to vote in the 1959 (You have never had it so good) general election as I was only 20.

I was a natural conservative, as an ex-public schoolboy from a middle-class family. But our Member of Parliament was Henry Brook, former right-wing home secretary. I couldn’t vote for him so I voted Liberal. Time went on and I became Hampstead Young Conservative’s chairman.

Then Margaret Thatcher became prime minister. I didn’t agree with her privatisation of our industries but worst of all was the poll tax and in 1990 I joined the Labour Party which I supported for many years.

But that party is now in disarray so, like Mr Seifert, I voted Lib Dem in the recent European election. So after 55 years have I seen the light?

JOHN MACDONALD
Fellows Road, NW3