Sir,
The expenses row rumbles on and on and we welcome recruits to the Angry Brigade, enraged by the exposure of 'Members Allowances' (Beacon, 22 July).
Many more residents are helpless but as angry as some of us have been for decades. (Remember the outrage over the Navigation Rights and the mayoral visit to Japan?)
What is the total paid out, and what are "Special Responsibility Allowances", many of five-figure amounts? Who gives Special Responsibilities? We have five strata of government, all overpopulated, all entitled to allowances and expenses, with 'Golden Goodbyes' for those who don't go straight to the House of Lords or the Cabinet.
While councillors flip parties for the same reason that MPs flip homes, it is the political grandees who select candidates for seats their party is likely to win.
Will they ever deselect anyone if local records show little evidence of responsibility or capability? Or allow electors to vote for candidates? Or mayors?
Recent correspondence suggest that the Planning Committee is useless, will the Ombudsman add that one to his fat file and do nothing, while the extravagant lifestyle of politicians costs every honest taxpayer far too much? What do they do with our money?
On another matter, I was saddened to read of the death of Aeronwy, daughter of Dylan Thomas. She gave her first poetry reading in 1974 for the Monmouth and District Arts Association, in the days when we arranged our own entertainment in our own Rolls Hall.
We became friends and I often stayed with her and Trefor in their home in New Malden. On one occasion she answered the door bell and came back laughing helplessly: not knowing her background, a kind woman had called to invite her to hear a W.I. lecture entitled "How To Look After your Parents in their Frail Old Age"!
She was influential in the Poetry Society and the Allergy Society and will be greatly missed.
Kirstie Buckland
(Monmouth)