With typical chutzpah, local Tory spinmeister David Gold puts a positive gloss on his party's disappointing night last Thursday (Letters, May 3).

The Conservatives were convinced they were headed for a clear victory. As Mr Gold's leader, Brian Oxley, said on April 29, "a Conservative council will be voted in".

Certainly, with a rise in council tax and an unpopular war hitting Labour in what was always going to be a tough set of mid-term elections, the Tories failed to make good what they felt was their best opportunity in a generation to seize control of Brighton and Hove.

Winning two per cent more of the vote, most of it gained in safe Tory seats, was not enough.

If it wasn't for the Greens gaining votes and seats from some natural Labour supporters making an electoral protest - it is ironic to see it is not just the US profiting from the war in Iraq - then Labour would very probably still have an overall majority instead of remaining the largest party.

-G Kennedy, Hove