I RECEIVED documents relating to the West Devon mayoral election and read them with amazement.
I am supposed to make a choice between a proposition given two and a half lines of propaganda out of the three lines of accompanying blurb on the voting form, and nothing. Not a word said about the alternative of leaving well alone.
President Mugabe would be proud of the technique. It is less bloody than his, but just as effective as a means of getting the result you want.
I do not think I have ever seen such an undemocratic way of conducting a ballot (except perhaps the nonsense a few years ago about Bedford Square) and I can only ask that the good citizens of West Devon will give a resounding no in their response to a proposition which, if implemented, would result in a local government structure which would be unmanageable, unaccountable (except to Blair's Gestapo) and would destroy any vestige of local influence in a system already suffering excessive stresses from central government interference.
Geoffrey M Stowell
The Laurels
The Down
Bere Alston