Praise from the Bristol Cabinet's Environment Spokesman

Thanks for letter of support, councillor

The above is the title of a letter in the Bristol Evening Post from Knowle's Lib-Dem Councillor Gary Hopkins, who speaks on environmental issues and other matters for the Bristol Cabinet. His letter goes on to say:

'I WELCOME the letter of support from green candidate Glenn Vowles ("Recycling is not to blame for rat boom", Open Lines, December 13)...It is good to see that at last an opposition politician is responsible.'

The way politics is conducted is very important. Its often conducted in such an apalling, negative, irrational and point-scoring way, with criticism for the sake just of criticism. Many people are put off by this and dont bother to vote and/or develop a view of politics and politicians as the lowest of the low.

I believe in applying ethical standards across the whole of life and when campaigning politically feel that it should be done ethically. I was very happy to support Councillor Hopkins on the issue of recycling and the rat boom because he is right on this one and had been very unfairly criticised over several days in the press. By supporting him on this issue I was also defending recycling.

He should be in no doubt though that I am very critical of the general Lib-Dem stance on a very large number of issues, not least the appalling state of public transport in Bristol which is ruining the quality of out lives and giving us very poor air quality. And of course Councillor Hopkins is in the Cabinet that took the decision to close Jubilee Swimming Pool, despite the fact that his election address said he would fight all plans to close it.