Horsham Labour Party member, Carol Hayton, wrote to the West Sussex County Times to respond to a previous letter about the results of the recent county council elections. It was printed in today's paper.I have never read a more ridiculous argument than that contained in the letter from county councillors Ancraman and Griffiths (letters page June 12).
Apparently, as a consequence of voters supporting parties other than Conservative in some seats, the Conservative vote was reduced to such an extent that the Liberals won.
According to these two councillors, the Tory defeat was not what the voters had intended by not voting for them. On the basis of that argument Horsham Labour Party can now console itself with the knowledge that we suffered only a very narrow defeat in many seats, a defeat that was brought about by the Conservatives standing.
Had the Conservative voters realised that a consequence of their vote would be that Labour would not win they would have of course voted Labour instead and we would by now be running the county council!
I would normally be surprised that this nonsense posing as serious political analysis would be accepted for publication, but we are of course dealing with the West Sussex County Times which persists in operating as a campaign vehicle for the Conservative party.
I notice that the formally implied editorial blue wash now actually appears over the comment column!
Your editor determinedly resists the call for a more balanced approach to political discussion and defiantly increases the level of Tory propaganda with a new weekly column from Cllr Phillip Circus, perhaps the column title should be amended to read 'Another Tory point of view' or even 'The same point of view' as Cllr Circus, Francis Maude and Henry Smith clearly share the same song sheet.
On the subject of Henry Smith, it is only a week since the elections were held and yet Henry seems to have forgotten about the county, preferring to bang on about national issues over which he has no control.
Perhaps he is concerned that any mention of the county council by its leader would have to include comment about the cuts to budgets that he has made or the impact on services of the ten per cent cuts that the Conservatives will make across many government budgets should the win the next general election.
We hope to hear Henry's 'point of view' on such matters in the near future.
Carol Hayton
Horsham Labour Party
