• GENERAL elections are the Derby, Grand National, Wimbledon and the Cup Final all rolled into one as far as I am concerned.

My first vote was in the general election of 1964 at the age of 25 and I have voted in every one since – I wasn’t considered mature enough to vote in the 1959 election as I was only 21. But I was considered mature enough to fight for my country when conscripted to the Seaforth Highlanders in 1958 to 1960 at 25 shillings a week.

The election in Hampstead & Kilburn in June is very interesting. Glenda Jackson (Labour) won by 42 votes in 2010 thanks to the intervention, in my view, by the Ukip candidate Magnus Nielsen, who received 408 votes mostly from disenchanted Tories.

Similarly in 2015 Tulip Siddiq (Labour) won by 1,138, again thanks to the intervention by Magnus Nielsen for Ukip with 1,532 votes, almost 400 votes more than Ms Siddiq’s.

JOHN R MACDONALD, NW3