MADAM, I was saddened, disappointed but not a little surprised to see our local MP, Jesse Norman on the televison in the House of Commons crowing about the failure to proceed wih the timetable motion on House of Lords reform.

In May 2010, I was prepared to lend my support to the new coalition government, which I believed had the capacity to tackle the deficit and encourage the economic regeneration the country needs. I had fallen for the notion that the "new Conservative Party" was a progressive, forward thinking party acting not in class interest but with economic competence and a modern social conscience.

The attitude of our MP clearly reveals the old Tory party we were told was a thing of the past. Not only does Michael Gove want to lead us back to the 1950s in education terms but many tories, led by our MP wish to perpetuate a medieval system of governance that survives nowhere else in the civilised world except the odd dictatorship! What next? Exit from the EU? Isolationism? Stocks on the village green? I won't be quite so naive in 2015.

Neil Pascoe

Ross