I don’t like to be overtly critical of people - other than those that set themselves up for it or of course are answerable to the great British /Bury public. In addition I have a great respect for journalists and the job and duty they have to get to the truth and cover the stories of the day for their readership, often in the face of political/organisational attempts to deceive, manipulate or on occasion just lie.

I realise my admiration of the efforts of journalists is sadly not always shared with the wider public, so therefore it dismays and dissapoints me more than perhaps most people when I read stories like the one in the Jewish Telegraph today about graffitti in Prestwich.

At first reading I for a moment thought the “black hole” experiment in France must have gone wrong and i’m now living in a parallel universe, such was the distortion of facts surrounding the issue of graffiti in Prestwich and attempts to deal with it by the Area Partnership and Lib Dem councillors.

Not only did they fail to acknowledge that the individual concerned (A tory activist) was doing his community bit with a graffiti cleaning kit provided free by Prestwich Area Partnership - Lib Dem led and requested by us from the Tory council. And that it was the Tory council of which Cllr Michelle Wiseman is lead member) that was issuing the threatening letters. But it was then suggested that the Council and the Area Partnerhsip have done nothing for months, which I regret to say is a lie.

This is also an insult to the efforts of local police officers who working in partnership with the Area Patnership and Bury Safe/the Council have put in a sterling effort to deal with this problem. In fact one of the only accurate points made in the JT article was regarding those offenders caught, that are now cleaning this up.

It is sad when such distortions are expressed in a respected newspaper because ultimately it undermines the reputation and credibility of their reporting. But we don’t want to let the facts get in the way of a good story do we ?