PAYING PRICE: I received a circular, delivered by volunteers on behalf of the member of Parliament for Newcastle.

To his credit, MP Paul Farrelly, pictured, was desirous of knowing of any issues affecting the local area of Wolstanton and I felt I had a duty to reply.

However, after consideration I came to the conclusion that since he was asking me about issues in my area it was a bit cheeky of him to ask me to pay the cost of informing him.

As I see it, the taxes I pay support his salary and the expenses incurred in representing Newcastle and I assume that this circular was being paid for from his community fund account of some £10,000 per year.

And my taxes also help to pay the remuneration and expenses of my local Labour councillor who surely should be the one to keep him informed.

After much thought, I reached the conclusions that the reason for his request was:

The local branch of the Labour Party is not speaking to the Westminster branch;

Or the recent attempted coup against Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not just confined to the Westminster village.

R FARR

Wolstanton