Madam,

Once again I find myself admonished by Ian MacIntyre for having the temerity to air my views via your letters page. It strikes me that Mr MacIntyre is one of those neo-liberal types who support freedom of speech until they hear something they don’t like and then proceed to aggressively shout down the person with an opposing viewpoint to such a degree they shut down the argument.

His letter last week crossed the line and was both defamatory and factually incorrect. Firstly he quotes me completely out of context, and for an intelligent man I can only surmise he did so to deliberately undermine my reputation yet again. He referred repeatedly to the fact that I use my position as county councillor to impose my views on the people in my Ward, and even goes so far as to say “shame on you councillor, for using the fact that you represent the people of Llangelynnin to prompt militarism”, (I presume he meant ‘promote’) almost implying I am some sort of warmonger!

He perpetuates the myth that 16-year-olds are sent to active combat zones, which, if he’d done his homework, he would know is incorrect. The tone of his letter was deeply disparaging of our Armed Forces and showed lack of respect for those who have served their country.

Mr MacIntyre may have his own ideology regarding war, and I respect his right to do so, but I do not appreciate yet another public berating of my personal views in such a dishonest and insulting tone.

Lastly, he says I was “returned unopposed and got not a single vote”. He’s clearly forgotten that he himself stood against me, only to withdraw his election papers an hour before the cut-off deadline.

I’m not entirely sure what point he is trying to make when it was HIS decision to pull out that prevented an election in the first place. His implication that I snuck in through the back door and that nobody voted for me is both laughable and offensive.

Yours etc,

Louise Hughes, 20 Maesegryn, Llanegryn.

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