Les Laurence writes to the Editor

Dear Editor,

In the June 2009 edition of the Village Pump I wrote about a young Lady who spent her formative years living in Stoke Ferry, and is now Member of Parliament for Norwich North. I was, of course, referring to Chloe Smith. I have recently been reading in our national press that Ms Smith has just been made Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and one article indicated that at the age of 29, and after only two years in Parliament, she is now knocking on the door of the Cabinet.

Now none of this surprises me as it was obvious to me from day one that here was a Lady who had a very exciting political career ahead of her, and I made mention of this fact more than once in my then regular contributions to the Village Pump. I went so far as to suggest that we could be looking at a future Prime Minister, an observation I still stand by.

What has, and still does, surprise me, is that none of your regular contributors, Mr. Editor, have ever seemed interested in acknowledging the achievements of Ms Smith in the Village Pump, in spite of her local connections. If you wanted to follow her career then the national press, or the TV, is the place to look; certainly not in the pages of our local Village Pump where I would have thought Ms Smith would have made front page news, fully justified in my view. I’m speechless.

There is another aspect to my observations. Over the years I have, in my then frequent articles, made many references to the delectable Miss Jones, which should have surprised no one. I have always had a close affinity with very attractive women, after all I married one. It therefore amazes me that even though Ms Smith, in my judgement, possesses such qualities, even that attribute has still not been sufficient for your regular contributors Mr Editor, to inspire them to put pen to paper.

Where does that leave our intrepid contributors when they are at home with their socks off? Don’t ask me. As I say, I’m speechless.

Les Lawrence

Methwold