SO A number of people managed to jump off Magdalen Bridge on May Morning in the traditional fashion this year? Good luck to them, I say!

I have stopped going to the celebrations in recent years as their spontaneity has been spoilt by a proliferation of barriers, police and large, anonymous gentlemen in fluorescent jackets with ‘Security’ printed on them.

Frankly, I am glad that people are rebelling against the increasing arbitrary interference of officialdom in traditional events of this kind.

We have had enough of this ‘nanny state’ attitude, and it’s time to re-assert individual liberties.

I have been arguing for years that the simplest and most cost-effective approach to making this event safe (in so far as anything in life is ‘safe’) is for the Environment Agency or volunteer groups to dredge the Cherwell under the bridge and remove the supermarket trolleys, bicycles and other detritus undoubtedly there, so that there is enough depth for people to have a nice early morning bath without harming themselves.

This would be a far more libertarian approach, and also would cost an awful lot less for local taxpayers.

LAURENCE HUGHES, UK Independence Party, Oxfordshire