The attack by the Conservative Shadow Cabinet and Press on the wife of the Prime Minister and her family should not have happened in a healthy democracy.

In Adur District Council, there is straight talking between all parties. This is what leads to local debate and resolves local issues. It keeps democracy alive and well without family involvement.

The Shadow Cabinet under Iain Duncan Smith and the national Conservative Party - who orchestrated through the national media a public McCarthy-type witch-hunt to discredit the wife of the Prime Minister - are incapable of being an effective political opposition hence the personal attacks on family members of our Prime-Minister.

Politics has entered a very dangerous stage if civil political issues are clouded by personal attacks on families of politicians.

-Coun Sally Willson, Labour and Co-operative councillor, Adur