I DON’T find the election results at all surprising.

This is not a mid-term election, it’s only been a year, and the coalition’s cuts haven’t really started to bite.

The Conservatives have always been very good at turning their vote out, so it’s not surprising that their support held up.

Labour’s campaign in Scotland was lacklustre and too focussed on Westminster politics, when it should have been about Scotland.

The collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote shows two things. First, the amount of tactical voting by Labour supporters that the Liberal Democrat’s have been benefiting from in the past, this would explain the Liberal Democrat swing to the Conservatives. The second is the sense of disillusionment and betrayal felt by Liberal Democrat voters who thought their party had abandoned its principles by entering into a coalition with the Conservatives. This would explain the Liberal Democrat swing to Labour.

What is interesting is the Eastleigh vote.

Eastleigh Liberal Democrats should be congratulated for defying the national trend. I suspect it may have a lot to do with Chris Huhne’s attack on Cameron and Osborne more than anything else. I don’t live in Eastleigh so I don’t know. It would be interesting if Eastleigh residents who voted Liberal Democrat, but are not Liberal Democrat supporters would write and enlighten us.

DUNCAN WHITE, Southampton.