RICHARD Britton was correct to point out that I called Angus Macpherson, our Police and Crime Commissioner, a political appointee when he is in fact elected.

What I should have said was that Mr Macpherson was a politically appointed candidate, chosen by the Conservative Party in a Conservative-run county in which there was not the slightest prospect of anyone of any other political persuasion being voted into office.

I should probably also have restated my view that an independent police force ought not to be overseen by any individual chosen on the basis of their loyalty to a particular party.

Now that Cllr Britton, the Conservative chairman of the county’s Police and Crime Panel, has got that off his chest, perhaps he’d like to focus on the futility of the force which Mr Macpherson oversees spending half a million of OUR money policing the slaughter of thousands of badgers in pursuit of an unproven theory, on the orders of a Conservative government. That was, after all, the point of my article. But I guess it’s a bit harder to argue with.

I might add that I’d be making the same point about a badger cull no matter which party ordered it.

Annie Riddle

Harnham