RECENT letters (HAS, May 13) expressing satisfaction at the British National Party’s poor performance in the General Election are very naive. Given the financial shenanigans the large parties get up to, any small party which gets a councillor or MP elected is doing well.

For example, the Tories received £12m in donations in the first quarter of 2010 alone.

I’m sure that any honours awarded to the donors will be entirely coincidental.

As for Labour, when in power it “gave” £18m of taxpayers’ money to the trade union Unite, which generously “gave” £11m to the Labour Party. With this sort of money, not only would the BNP have far more elected politicians, but the Monster Raving Loony Party would have got several MPs.

And as for the bias displayed by the BBC against the small parties, I assume the name of the game is “air time for honours”

instead of “cash for honours”.

On the rare occasions when the BNP can afford to put the same money and effort into an election as the main parties we often get a similar number of votes – eg, in the Jarrow Primrose ward by-election earlier this year.

Ralph Musgrave, Recent BNP Parliamentary Candidate, Durham City.

WHEN I was 17 and the Labour Party was proclaiming itself as a socialist party and proud of it, many were asked to believe that we were entering the century of the common man.

I was not old enough to vote until I was 21, but I was told that people went to the polling stations from working class areas to vote in Labour in droves.

There was an uncontested belief in progress.

I am now 82 and for most of my life there have been Conservative governments and I see on television a press conference in the garden of 10 Downing Street addressed by two men educated at Eton who probably learned their debating skills in their sixth-form debating society.

The present century seems to have reverted to the century of Tories and Whigs and the Labour Party was an idealistic dream.

I would be more resigned about the way things have turned out were it not for the fact that the turn of events is directly due to the Labour Party losing its soul to get elected under Tony Blair in 1997.

Geoffrey Bulmer, Billingham.

I WOULD like to thank the people of the Bishop Auckland constituency who voted for me in the General Election.

As a local person who is very much dedicated to voicing concerns for local people and local business I am proud of the number of votes I received.

I would also like to thank my small team of supporters and also my family who helped me to fight this election.

All through my campaign I was told that change in this constituency was needed. This did not happen, but let’s hope that this new Parliament delivers change for the better in this country as a whole.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg, we will be watching you both very closely with great optimism.

Sam Zair, Local Liberals (People Before Politics) Bishop Auckland.