Oh, that Screaming Lord Sutch were still with us and announcing to the Monster Raving Loony Party “Go home and be the arbiters of governments!”

Who knows? The Official Monster Raving Loony Party’s preferences might decide a crucial seat. Its Alternative Vote policy is “Vote Yes, as 96.421 per cent of voters will put the Loonies second”.

This happened in the 1961 Australian national election when the Tory government was re-elected with an effective one-seat majority on the preferences of the very small Communist Party.

But the Australian Labour Party candidate would have won the deciding seat with first past the post.

Preferences distribution in Islington South and Finsbury could be a worry for sitting Commons member Emily Thornberry (Labour) if AV comes in – but probably would cause no furrowing of his brow for Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) in Islington North.

In last May’s election, Ms Thornberry had a 3,569 majority over the Liberal Democrat, but the five other candidates achieved 10,310 votes including 8,449 for the Conservative. One could not see a lot of Conservative preferences going to Labour. – Leo Chapman, Dufferin Street, EC1.