IT is not surprising that Sir George Young has decided to retire from the House of Commons, as come the next election he will have been in Parliament for over 40 years.

My late mother, Kathleen Kidd, who met him once and corresponded with him, described him as the type of Conservative who would appeal to non-Tory voters.

He was right to oppose the poll tax and other excesses of Thatcherism but wrong to support the needless invasion of Iraq and to oversee railway privatisation. The rail service is, if anything, worse sometimes than when it was under state control.

There have been suggestions that he has not given enough attention to the Oakley and Tadley areas of the constituency, although they may of course be partisan.

I do, however, wish him well in his retirement.

Second, I would urge all conscientious MPs to forgo their 11 per cent pay rise as millions of struggling workers only receive one per cent.

MPs’ salaries will rise to £74,000. Why should public sector workers have their pay pegged at 1.6 per cent?

This includes more than a million NHS workers and 2.7 million civil servants. Any MP who thinks the rise is anything other than a scandal is seriously out of touch!

Richard Kidd, Danegeld Close, Andover