NO doubt on hearing about the increasingly bizarre antics of his Liberal Democrat colleagues in York, one cannot blame Charles Kennedy in the slightest for turning towards a drop of the hard stuff.

Ironically, this may have been an ideal refuge for him should he have decided to visit Messrs Galloway, Macdonald and Reid, given their undoubted inability to organise the proverbial night out in a brewery (never mind a firework display).

Bruce Murray,

Murray Street,

Holgate, York.

Updated: 11:08 Tuesday, January 10, 2006