I HAVE given up waiting for Gordon Benetti to tell us what makes him so proud to be a Tory.

It was back in July when I posed the question so it seems he is as good at answering questions as was his hero Neil Carmichael.

His latest diatribe in the SNJ is so contradictory it almost becomes funny.

Gordon says he was driving in Spain on pristine tarmac roads and suggests that if we stop sending money to the EU we could repair our own roads.

It is a pity that he didn’t call into the headquarters of Ferrovial Servicios while he was in Spain and asked them about the state of the roads in Gloucestershire because it is they who are the parent company of Amey who used to be called Gloucestershire Highways.

They might have told him that while we are wrecking our vehicles driving along the roads of Gloucestershire and the Tory led council have got rid of all the ‘highways staff (except the suit wearing ones) the shareholders of FS have been able to benefit from a 387 million euro net profit for the first nine months of 2017.

So, drinks all round. Gordon must know, but like most of his friends, doesn’t want to admit, that the decay of the infrastructure of this country is the direct result of the Tory policy of privatising anything that their supporters can make money from.

What people don’t seem to realise is that the private companies that have won the contracts to maintain our roads, run our railways and bus services, provide our electricity and gas etc make money by doing as little as they can get away with, but with the priority being to look after the shareholders.

It sounds as if Gordon voted to leave the EU.

Surely, on that basis, he must realise that this country is going to be so well off when we leave, that the next Labour government will have so much money they will be able to take the utilities back into public ownership.

Unfortunately, what they won’t be able to do is “take back control” because so many of the utilities are controlled by foreign companies thanks to Tory policy.

Finally, if Gordon wanted David Drew to carry out his election pledge of bringing jobs to this area he should have voted for him although I’ve got a suspicion he didn’t.

Perhaps he and his friends should remember that at the next election but perhaps too many of them are shareholders to care.

Howard Price

Nailsworth