WHERE would you expect to find the leader of the local Conservative group at 8.30pm on election night when the polls close at 10pm? On the streets canvassing would be my answer – something I did 30 years ago in John Clout’s era. You knocked on doors until the polls closed.

Where was Coun Ian Gillies at this time? In the Fox & Roman pub in Tadcaster Road. He was joined about ten minutes thereafter by a tall dark-haired gentleman, sporting a very large blue rosette until he came into the pub, when he took it off.

I tackled them as to why they were not out canvassing. I was told by a woman in the party you don’t go knocking on doors at 10pm when there may be young children.

My response to that is you do your homework. Had they already knocked on every prospective Conservative door?

Coun Gillies said it was a different world now to 30 years ago.

How come then that on driving home at 9pm and turning into Moorcroft Road, we came across four men going one way, two the other, all sporting yellow rosettes?

Mrs P Taylor, Windermere, Woodthorpe, York.

• ON THURSDAY evening, there was a knock at my door. I knew it was a Labour candidate and chose to ignore it.

Not that I’m ignoring Labour, or any other party for that matter. But thanks to the whole election campaign being shoved in our faces day in day out on the TV and newspapers, and with umpteen leaflets through the door leading up to elections, I’d just had enough and didn’t want to speak to this candidate.

After waiting for a few, long minutes, he put his leaflet through the door and moved on to the next house.

No longer than an hour later, and just after 8.30pm, another knock on the door. I ignored that too.

I am obviously not allowed to enjoy my evening without having to answer the door and listen to a load of mumbo jumbo, just because voting wasn’t finishing until 10pm.

He also put a leaflet through the door (same leaflet as the first one!) and moved on.

Ten out of ten for persistence, but given that it’s about the only time you ever get to speak to a candidate, just because they want your vote, I was having none of it.

A Logan, Tennent Road, York.

• I DISLIKE unfairness, and this is just what the referendum (which the dictionary says is “a direct vote of the electorate on a question of importance”) has been.

Every eligible voter in the country was to be given the chance to vote for or against AV. But nobody told those who wanted a postal vote that they would have to go to their polling station to be given a voting paper for it. Surely it would have been easy to include a referendum voting paper in the same envelope as the normal ballot paper for postal voters?

I would never have known this if a member of the family had not had a postal vote. And I’m willing to bet that there are many in the country who didn’t know either.

A fair referendum? I don’t think so.

Elisabeth Wade, Russell Street, Scarcroft Road, York.