MADAM - I was disconcerted and somewhat baffled to read the letter from Molly Scott Cato in the SNJ of June 4 in which she claims that the voters of the South West and Stroud had in some way rejected Ukip, and by implication and in contrast endorsed the Greens, in the recent elections to the European Parliament.

The hard and incontrovertible facts of the matter are that the declared results were as follows: South West Region: Ukip 484,184, Greens 166,447; Stroud district: Ukip 9,348, Greens: 6,582.

Whichever way Molly would like to spin it these figures speak for themselves.

The Ukip vote is of course net of the votes lost by Ukip as a result of another party being allowed to pass itself off as Ukip at the head of the ballot sheet.

If even half of these votes were taken into consideration Ukip would have had its third MEP in the South West and Molly would not even have been elected.

So Ms Scott Cato has her seat thanks to the spoiling actions of an embittered former Ukip MEP.

This matter is being taken up both with the Electoral Commission and with the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

I struggle to see how the Green Party will bring real prosperity to Stroud and the South West as claimed by Molly.

We need only to look to Brighton and Hove Council to learn what a Green administration and Green policies would truly mean for Stroud and its residents.

Brighton has the only council in the UK in which the Greens are in power, and, believe me, the residents can’t wait to see the back of them.

If it’s not ‘meat free Mondays’ and a ban on bacon butties in council owned canteens (almost causing a strike by manual workers), it’s transgender toilets; councillors camping in the branches of condemned trees and pinning odes to them on the trunks; the introduction of Mx (Mixter) on council forms for those who don’t wish to use Mr, Mrs or Ms; uncollected refuse in the streets; civil war between the mangoes (Lib Dem leaning Greens) and the watermelons (Labour leaning Greens); and almost weekly votes of no confidence in the Green administration from Green councillors; not to mention the almost daily attempted coups d’état within the Green group against their own leadership.

And last but not least a 4.75 per cent increase in council tax.

Is this really what we want for Stroud?

Not that Molly will be bothered.

She has now of course clambered aboard the European Gravy Train, and at the SDC meeting on June 5 she announced her intention to abandon her constituents in Valley Ward, thus precipitating a by-election.

I just hope that the good people of Valley Ward will remember the loopy antics of the Greens in Brighton and elsewhere come election day, and that they vote accordingly.

JR Ford

Painswick