BARBARA Kingman, who I know mainly from being secretary of the Chatteris What Next group, drops me a line to express her support for the hard-working editor of a parish magazine.

Barbara is hopping mad that Pat Mills, who puts together the parish newsletter in Christchurch, should be under fire (Diary last week) for publishing an innocuous joke about the Irish and the criticism it attracted from a Dr Osborne.

“Well, you should really get a life, Dr Osbourne,” she writes. “A harmless, gentle joke in a village magazine.

“Of all the serious, awful, unhappy events going on in the world today, you pick on a joke.

“The editor, Mrs Mills, is one of the most hard-working volunteers I have known.

“She runs an excellent magazine and is well-known for her kindness. Racist she is not.”

And, quite frankly, Barbara that’s typical of the reaction I’ve received elsewhere this week.