A long time ago, I was party to an informal discussion of Tory electoral prospects in the shires.

One of the Tory grandees present expressed the view that maintaining “safe seats” in Devon among other places was not a problem.

“You could paint a pig blue and people there would vote for it.”

It seems that maybe that jest has proven both prescient and truthful with respect to the remarks made by our elected representative Tony Howard.

His expressed conceit, that people have chosen the “Tory way of life” and the complacency that it implies is scarcely credible in the light of recent local election results achieved by Independent candidates and the long tenure over many years of council positions by some Independent councillors.

It seems that when people are presented with a real choice to vote for someone with integrity, who are not mired in the party political system and who clearly represent the interests of the electorate rather than their own, then they vote accordingly.

Long may this apparent trend continue and move us all towards true representation of our views in a widely accessible, non-partisan, democratic space.

Blue painted pigs should be restricted to a role as novelty items in local livestock sales.

Dr Paul Johnston

The Old Post Office

Fairmile