On finding that Elizabeth Truss was allowed to take up a whole page in the village newsletter, in order to inform us about what she had been doing ‘on our behalf’.
View from the Dam Green Republic
I believe I speak for many when I express my sadness at discovering that the Kenninghall newsletter has been pressed into service as a right-wing propaganda tool.
Glad as we are when any young person who might normally be left on the unemployment scrapheap finds a job, it is different when that person charges you about £100.000 per annum (including expenses) in order to bring about the very changes to society that one has fought tooth and nail to prevent.
To find that the village newsletter allows that young person to crow about how she has been busily stealing from the poor and giving to the rich is, well, a bit rich.
To hear her bragging about how she plans to destroy the environment, divide the community still further, and prepare the country for World War 3 is galling indeed.
And to find that she has been given a full page ad in a number of issues free of charge is thoroughly irksome.
To allow space in a newsletter for political debate is a dangerous move but to surrender its pages to partisan propaganda could be more hazardous still. If equal access were granted to all political persuasions, Kenninghall might have to print a whole series of rival publications and we could end up with a scenario where for instance the gardening club supports the blue pages while the Kenninghall allotment society prints its minutes on the red pages. The Green Party may have to have a few meetings first in order to decide what constitutes a quorum, but once that matter is settled, they will almost certainly print in biodegradable ink on green recycled paper (content to be decided after the next meeting).
The Lib Dems are so chuffed at being allowed to stand next to David that they are unlikely to complain about anything right now but when the ConDem alliance begins to crack up we might see some fireworks from them as well.
Is this really what a village newsletter should aim to do?
Speaking as the unelected president of the neighbouring Dam Green Republic, I would urge you to show restraint, bury the hatchet, and cease and desist from this course. Your newsletter should be about what unites you surely and not the instrument for highlighting political divisions.
Il Presidente