WE can tell the General Election is only seven months away as all the no-hopers, like Chris Foote-Wood, the Prospective Parliamentary LibDem candidate for Richmond, are writing into HAS at every opportunity on any subject.

Most recently he responded to a letter from Barry Jackson (HAS, Oct 16).

The public are not fooled by a deluge of letters from a man who as far as I can remember has never won a Parliamentary seat despite the number of times he has been put forward.

Now Mr Chris Foote-Wood is trying for Richmond, in North Yorkshire, which has a Tory majority of some 23,000, the largest majority in the UK and a seat that he has as much chance of winning as being the next Prime Minister.

In fact, I would expect, as happened in the past that after the election we will not hear from him again until another one comes along.

John Merry, Darlington

SINCE 1986 I have enjoyed reading my fellow honorary Alderman, Chris Foote-Wood’s, contributions to Hear All Sides.

They habitually begin to appear six to eight months prior to an election and then mysteriously disappear from your pages once the ballot boxes have closed.

Good luck, Chris.

Phil Graham, New Coundon

AS a regular writer to Hear All Sides I’m loath to complain about my fellow contributors because the diverse nature of the subjects and opinions is the very thing that makes the letters page so attractive. There’s quirky, there’s mean, there’s political, there’s even poorly written, but generally they are penned with feeling by journalistic laymen and all the better for that.

What does irritate me lately however, and I predict an increase in the period up to May 2015, is the number of councillors and prospective parliamentary candidates who use the column as a literary soap box.

Those from Liberal Democrats genuinely puzzle me as I was not aware that the party had strong enough opinions to motivate someone putting pen to paper. Indeed, I’ve never been able to see the point of the party at all.

Following on from a suggestion from John Risley, I’d do away with all this endless electioneering and empty promises by having annual General Elections, but I’d go further, disband the political parties and have all legislation decided on a national referendum basis.

We can surely do this in the age of digital communication, a sort of Strictly Come Run The Country.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland