Thank you for publishing the extremely timely questions put to the candidates for election of police and crime commissioner and for their frighteningly illuminating responses.

You provided my wife and myself (and, I am sure, most other voters in the region) with the first and still the only indication of what we are being asked to vote on and for whom.

Surely even a politician would not realistically expect that the selection of of the right candidate for such an important position can safely be delegated to the popular vote. Should we be expected to vote on the appointment of a judge, a bishop or even a newspaper editor?

Why, then, can we be expected to vote for a police and crime commissioner, especially when the candidates are so shy that they do not announce themselves until only a few days before the election date?

Having carefully studied your questions and the replies offered by the candidates, I have come to the conclusion that not a single candidate is qualified to hold the post.

Not one has given a single properly constructed response to your questions, not one has given a meaningful statement of his or her intentions or how the vague proposals outlined could be implemented. All the 30 replies to your five questions appear to require increased expenditure which flies in the face of the replies to your fourth question relating to the reduction in Government funding. I fear that the good people of Wiltshire will need a great deal of divine intervention if any of these candidates is elected.

J N Farquharson, Sempringham Court, Marlborough.