Madam, Climate change has been going both ways for a lot longer than the Met Office imagines. However, even if we tighten our belts at once, it seems we now owe all we can produce as a nation in four and a half years — always assuming our creditors will give us that long.
One thinks of 'Gordon' Macbeth: "They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly. But, bear-like, I must fight the course....."
So I was surprised to read in your report last week that our Conservative councillors — contrary to what their leaders at Westminster intend—were trying to delay economies proposed by a Liberal.
Competence in local government can be measured by the salt available to keep our roads open — not in trying to take advantage of some of the garbage issuing from our cosy computers. But the country is now in such dire straits that one would have thought that even our politicians would have realized it.
The week before you had Peter Dewhurst worrying about Walford's money and it might be useful to note that taking half the precept from the reserves this year simply allows the increase to be made permanent next. A better solution would be to halve the number of meetings in a year and to restrict what the parish council does at them.
K Horne, Gorsley