Limits

When I got home at 9:45pm last night and found my inbox full I knew there had been an altercation on the Blog. I have deleted all the entries from and about people dissatisfied with the service they receive from some of our shops. I do not think any were libellous or even particularly unpleasant and they would no doubt pass as "fair comment" (this is actually a technical term meaning someone's opinion) , but whilst those who posted negative comments were anonymous and will not have to face those who might have been offended, I am not and will. For my part I have never had any problem with anyone in any Maiden Newton shop in the last 25 years.

I cannot delete individual comments so I have deleted everything and reposted the other threads as new topics.

It is possible to make this a moderated blog where every comment would have to be passed by me but I have avoided this as I believe it would spoil the flow of ideas. I do not wish to sound like a school teacher but it is not difficult to present a powerful argument whilst being scrupulously polite. I have managed to upset lots of people by being polite! It's a gift.

Talking of anonymity I have thought a great deal about the suggestion that our parish, district and county councillors should become involved in the Blog. It is just my opinion of course but I think that the open rough and tumble of a public blog is not the sort of thing that councillors should get involved in. They have an official position and need to address the concerns of their electorate in a more formal manner than the blog would allow. Also I have noticed that many of the concerns expressed here are rather vague and not amenable to simple answers or, sometimes, any answers at all. Finally these concerns are usually anonymous and councillors are not obliged to respond to anonymous petitions, not least because the anonymous person may not be from their constituency. I happen to know that councillors do read the Blog and I have promised to print out the posts for Sally Falkingham.
I hope that this blog, which has turned out to be more popular than I dared hope, will continue to receive your support. I applaud vigorous debate but I think that in a small community such as ours there must be stricter limits than would be needed in the wider cyberspace.

Circus

As I am sure everyone knows by now the circus is coming to town thanks to the Friends of Greenford School. I will post some stuff on the web site about it soon. Below are a few comments that were posted elsewhere. I spoke to Mr Atkinson today and he said that most, though not all, of the tickets had been sold. This is good news but it would be a great help to the school and improve the atmosphere of the day if the remaining ones could be sold.

Dog problems

This is a perennial favorite topic so I have re-introduced it and included some recent comments posted on the "Suggest a New Topic" page. Well done to whoever has been putting up the notices reminder irresponsible dog owners of their duties.

Suggest a new subject

Sue has suggested a general page where new subjects can be introduced. So here it is. Use it to suggest topics which can then have their own thread. Remember this is a public blog so if you register you will be able to start topics, not just comment. I am still wondering if a discussion group format would be better. Please let me know what you think.

New Frampton Court

I have deleted the posts for this topic and started a new, independent Blog for this subject. It is, after all, not in our village. The Echo have picked up on my Framptonos piece on the web site and will be publishing an article about it next week.

Go to Framptonos Blog.