SIR – The crocodile tears being shed by the likes of Kris Hopkins MP and D S Boyes over the so-called West Lothian question (T&A Letters, October 18) need to be put into their proper context.

They seem to think it wrong that Scottish MPs should be allowed to vote on purely English matters although this arrangement went more or less unchallenged until Margaret Thatcher almost succeeded in single-handedly destroying the Conservative party in Scotland.

Messrs Boyes and Hopkins also appear to have forgotten or perhaps choose to ignore what happened after the 1992 general election when John Major managed to lose every by-election until his Commons majority vanished and was thereafter reliant on the votes of the Ulster Unionists to keep his government afloat. If that was good for the Tories then, it ill becomes them to complain about the possibility that after the next general election the beneficiary of a similar arrangement but with Scottish rather than Irish support would be Ed Miliband.

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley