Ten tonnes of paper through the doors of South Oxfordshire!
SINCE the Henley By-election was called two weeks ago the residents of South Oxfordshire have been bombarded by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats with flyers, leaflets, letters (typed and handwritten!), newspapers and glossy magazines.
Within hours of the announcement of John Howell as Conservative candidate the first document came through my door.? This was followed by a further four arriving on the following five days.
I have received copies of the Oxfordshire News, which claims to be a newspaper for South Oxfordshire. After a few seconds reading, however I soon realise that this is nothing but more election material from the Liberal Democrats.
John Howell has sent me glossy magazines, newspapers, letters from David Cameron, letters from Boris?it goes on and on.
The most infuriating and amusing document to come through the letter box was the lovely blue envelope, hand written with a nice 2nd class stamp on the front. Who can this be from, I thought, perhaps some correspondence from aunty or grandma?but no such luck, inside is a letter from guess who Stephen Kearney!
Apart from the annoyance there is the very serious issue of waste.? When you are dealing with such large quantities it is little comfort to be told that it has come from a sustainable source.
The 13 publications which I have received from the Liberal Democrats weighs a total of 118 grams, the Conservatives have sent 10 which weigh in at 108 grams. There are 42,300 households in the Henley Constituency, so when you had up all this paper it comes to a total of 9.5 tonnes. Lets also take into account the amount of ink used, the energy used to print all this election material and delivery across the constituency.? How can John Howell say “Vote Blue, Go Green? It really is a contradiction.
I was delighted to see that the Green Party have sent just one A5 leaflet to every household which totals just 15 kilos of paper. This is a party who are obviously far more confident about what they have to say.
John Howell and Stephen Kearney must be feeling very insecure to feel the need to contact their constituents so frequently. Remember lads – it’s not quantity its quality!
Mrs L Bristow
Secretary of the Dorchester Carbon Project
