I could not help smiling as I read Councillor Dawn Barnett’s letter about Caroline Lucas and Smash EDO (Letters, October 23).

For a start, Caroline did comment, so the whole letter is pointless, but it gets better. Coun Barnett says The Argus report on the Smash EDO protest was “excellent”.

I am no expert on balanced journalism, but the report didn’t strike me as the best example of it, implying that the cost of policing the protest was somehow the protestors’ fault – when surely it is the police who decide how much money to spend on such things.

Still more silliness further on, when Coun Barnett makes reference to Caroline’s point of view (how did she know what that was, if Caroline was unavailable for comment?).

But the icing on the cake comes towards the end when Coun Barnett says, “I would urge her to use the influence she clearly has with Smash EDO to get them to speak to the police before the next demonstration.”

As The Argus reported, Caroline’s last words, in the comment she didn’t make, were “I would suggest Smash EDO and the police need to get round a table together.”

Tom Druitt FRSA
Managing Director, The Big Lemon CIC, Boundary Road, Brighton