TERRY Scriven likes to get his picture in the papers dressed up in his former Army uniform whenever he can, even though he left the military police many years ago. He also signs his letters using the title ‘Colonel’ rather than ‘Colonel (retired)’, which would be the correct description.

I would not mind any of this, as a former ex-serviceman myself, if he did not continue to obsess about the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme (letter, January 9), even after Lib Dem MP Sandra Gidley has written (Westminster View, January 7) so strongly in its praise, and has explained why MPs are sensibly put into uniform when participating in the scheme.

As Mr Scriven is such a stickler for propriety in matters of dress and description, may we also count on him, in future, correctly to describe himself as the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for New Forest East – which is what he is – rather than continuing to use the made-up label of ‘Prospective MP’? Only voters can confer titles of that sort.

ALEX SHEPHERD, Totton