It is easy for Liberal Democrat city councillor Patrick Murray to criticise county council leader Keith Mitchell over the issue of proportional representation, particularly in the light of the Conservatives failure to have a candidate elected to the council.

It is irresponsible of Mr Murray to continue to use the disingenuous methods the Lib Dems and Labour adopted in the election campaign.

It is also patronising of him to assume that voters do not realise that these methods also affected the voting patterns and the popularity of his own party.

Perhaps he is simply lashing out at a party that reduced his majority to single figures and came second in a high proportion of seats during the election, running several candidates quite close.

Not being a Conservative member myself, but rather a Socialist in reality, I'm still disgusted at the voting result in Oxford that returned a fiscally inept party to power, and helped to retain the numbers of councillors in the clueless party of the former administration.

Wellington may well have said: "I don't know about the enemy but, by God, they frighten me." But what scares me is the prospect of Champagne Socialists back in charge of Oxford, with no real checks or balances on their propensity for running this city into the ground.

The Lib Dems demonstrated an inability to restore any practical common sense to the running of the city when they were in charge.

So now the voters of Oxford are left with an administration linked to a party of war, a party which is currently fiddling (the books) while the UK burns.

Focus on them, Mr Murray - they are the real danger to Oxford.

ANDREW MacGREGOR Burrows Close Headington Oxford