HOW dare the mayor, Councillor Alexandra Phillips, rant to The Argus (under the guise of her MEP status), about the truly appalling state of Regency Ward, Brighton, which she and her husband, Councillor Tom Druitt, represent on the city council?

As it happens, I completely agree with her comments but I am obliged to question her motives. Are we to believe that, after representing this ward for several years, she has only now become aware of its acute problems?

Why, to the best of my knowledge, do I have no recollection of Alex ever raising any of these points either in the council chamber or in the columns of your worthy newspaper?

I’m so sorry to find myself criticising a mayor as it’s not normally in my nature. I have the utmost respect for the office but, as she has taken off the chains of office then I am forced to discard the gloves.

Can she (obviously as our MEP), please tell us why, unlike my Green councillor next door to her ward, the excellent Phelim Mac Cafferty she doesn’t appear to have donned her protective gear and organised her local residents into a clean-up campaign in that area?

Could it perhaps be that rather than help remove the absolute plethora of Extinction Rebellion flyposters and stickers abounding in this city she prefers to spend her time obstructing the legitimate business of our capital city by protesting with this same group of vandals and, of course, posting the evidence on social media or having her comrades do it?

I have always been of the opinion that if one is sufficiently foolish to undertake too many competing roles simultaneously, one ends up unable to do justice to any of them... hence the oft repeated phrase “jack of all trades, master of none”.

I’m forced to conclude that Alex’s outburst of indignation has a little more to do with her current campaign as the Prospective Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown than concern for her constituents in Regency Ward.

In my opinion this is nothing short of cant and hypocrisy, but I’m open to being proved wrong.

Over to you, Madam Mayor, MEP.

Nigel Furness, Prospective Ukip Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion Constituency