I get the impression you dislike me for being a Lib Dem and nothing more. I see little point in trying to change a closed mind – but as far as I’m concerned the essential quality in a politician is integrity, which has been described as ‘requiring, amongst other things, the ability to accept discomfort for the sake of truth’ (I belive it was said by M. Scott Peck in The road Less Travelled and Beyond. The only leaflet I had a hand in in the Eccles election was the one written soley for Ellesmere Park, and every point in that was in response either to national Tory party policy or statements made in the council chamber or 2003 local budget. If those points made unwelcome reading then you shouldn’t vote for the Conservatives. As to the other leaflets, they were produced by the Eccles party, and as I am chair of the Salford party I had no say in their content. As it happens, I have made my collegues quite clear on how I feel about overly negative campaigning – I don’t like it and I will continue not to like it. Frankly however, it beggers belief, having seen what was put out in the June elections by both Labour and the Conservatives, that anyone supporting either party has the gall to critise as you have above.