Censorship by intimidation

Regular readers of this newspaper cannot fail to have noticed how the leadership of Ashford Borough Council has become increasingly irritated by the often provocative but quite legitimate comments about life in Ashford by Kentish Express columnist Stuart Barton.

He doesn’t seem the sort to wilt under fire. Indeed it is essential for us all that he does not.

As always when one political party dominates national or local government, a free press is the only remaining organ of opposition to keep the ruling class accountable to its electorate.

Almost every time Stuart comments unfavourably on council policy, or takes a mischievous pot-shot at some aspect of local bureaucracy, he is chastised for his temerity in the following week’s Council Talk column.

Take Mr B’s observations in a recent article that the farmers’ market in the town had become a “proliferation of women’s institute type displays”. The Council Talk column by council leader

Express columnist Stuart Barton