Bolton News

I read an interesting article in the Daily Mail a couple of weeks ago and was prompted to send off a letter to the Bolton News as follows:-
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Dear Sir,
Perhaps your readers would be interested in the recent comments of The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, to the Conference of the Society of Editors.

He said that people should get their information about what local Councils are doing from independent sources.

Quote "I don't want the proceedings of the local Council to be reported to the public by an employee of that Council." Unquote

He further said that local papers that used to report fully on what town halls are doing have been weakened by the recession and the growth of the internet and in some cases Councils have launched their own expensively produced papers to rival the independent press.

In addition he said that some local weekly newspapers are relying on Council press officers for the information they print. Quote " If that is true it should send a shiver down all our spines. Unquote.

I am sure that the Bolton News is not one of these papers. If it is not already, the Bolton News should be the major campaigning organ holding the Council to account in terms of prudence, efficiency and competence. In the unlikely event that anyone ever read the Bolton Scene they would think that everything in the Bolton garden was lovely - as opposed to the reality that it is not.

By all means the Council are entitled to publicise its achievements but it should also honestly own up to its shortcomings, the catalogue of which grows longer by the week.

The public would respect them more for that.

As Lord Judge said - 'Spin is neither a cornerstone or a bulwark of a free society'.

End of letter.
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This was duly printed.

I'm posting this on the Blog in view of my being unsuccessful in getting the Bolton News to print my last two letters about Elected Mayors. ( See next Blog)

Incidentally, Alan Calvert has been commenting again as follows:-


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I’m no dummy . . . now who wants a gottle of geer?

I cannot remember being compared to a ventriloquist’s dummy before.
Mr P. A. Williams of Northwood, Harwood suggested in a reader’s letter that I was one of those when I said that the very idea of an elected Mayor for Bolton is plain daft. He thought I was toeing the ruling party line on this issue — presumably he meant the Labour-led council. Here in Bolton there was a consultation of sorts that failed to suggest that there was any popular groundswell of opinion along those lines. Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders agreed to kick the idea in to the long grass.

Mr Williams challenged me to “speak for the people and champion real democracy”. I like to think I do that in my quiet little way — there is no evidence that “the people” want affairs to be dictated by an individual.
Should this version of “real democracy” ever come to pass, I will gladly buy Mr Williams a celebratory gottle of geer.

End of Article.
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Does this represent the Bolton News policy on Elected Mayors?

Paul