NOW the General Election is out of the way, to the dissatisfaction of the abstainer Mr Quarrie (Letters, May 10), but before elections are completely forgotten, perhaps someone could answer a trivial question that has long puzzled me.

In the 1955 election, as we were reminded in Yesterday Once More (April 11), York was won by the Conservative Sir Harry Hylton-Foster who went on to great things, becoming Speaker of the House of Commons. But by then he was MP for the cities of London and Westminster.

In my earliest recollection York was held by Charles Longbottom (Conservative) who successfully defended the seat in 1964 before being defeated by "Mr Clare Short", then known as Alex Lyon, in 1966.

The only intervening election was the Tory landslide of 1959. Why, then, did Sir Harry abandon the Holy City for the insalubrious air of the Great Wen?

Robert Stevens,

Bootham Crescent, York.

Updated: 11:18 Tuesday, May 24, 2005