LET me strip aside the mere abuse in Mike Ford's latest letter and analyse the minimal substantive content.

First he admits he has not the slightest shred of evidence for his fantasy about the former town clerk and Crinkley Bottom. Nevertheless he felt able to suggest that there might have been what amounted to corrupt behaviour. In other words he was in engaged in a nasty smear.

Next, because I bother to rebut his absurd charges, he suggests that that might be evidence that they are in fact true. In other words he repeats the smear.

I can only guess at what he might have said had I not replied. However, given his past record, one can be pretty confident he would have taken silence as his confirmation of his speculations. He might well have found another excuse to repeat the smear.

Such regular vilification is part of Mr Ford's stock in trade (this after all, is a man who is so lacking in a sense of proportion that he is prepared to compare people he sees as his opponents with Adolf Hitler.) Such tactics have everything to do with disinformation and propaganda - they have nothing to do with democratic debate.

Cllr Ian Barker

Derwent Road

Lancaster

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