IN response to your colleague, Brakespear’s comments in a previous edition regarding ‘glum faces’ in Manea, I would like you to note that the only glum faces that have been observed recently have been those belonging to just a few of the diehard conservatives in the village.

I would also like to make it very clear that I was never a candidate for selection to represent Manea as a conservative councillor. I was never on the list, never put myself forward and was therefore not rejected by them, as your colleague intimated! I found it quite amusing to observe that the merest of hints that I might be considering the possibility, sent the discredited former leader of the council, Geoff Harper and some of his fellow Dinosaurs into a mad scramble to try and find a credible alternative candidate to block my selection. So hilarious and desperate were their shenanigans in fact, that the one of the people they propositioned to stand was a lifelong labour voter! Incidentally however, they did strike gold with their eventual local candidate Paul Fox. He would have made a very credible candidate, and as a friend of his, I know he would have tried to work as hard for the village as I do. I also respect his very principled decision not to go ahead and stand at this time and wish him the best of luck with his new work responsibilities. Paul like me has the best interests of Manea at heart and I am sure he will have his day, when the time is right. Had I ever been serious about becoming a conservative candidate I would only have considered doing so after consulting with the people of my village. Unlike many councillors I have not forgotten why I am a councillor and who put me there. I hold regular surgeries, at present every two weeks, and make myself available to my community whenever they need me.

MARK ARCHER

Manea