CLLR Rod Kennedy s letter (Crow Postbag, July 17) on democracy in Royston can be taken straight from George Orwell s novel Animal Farm. First, may I remind Cllr Kennedy of the dictionary definition of democracy which is: A form of government for the peop

CLLR Rod Kennedy's letter (Crow Postbag, July 17) on democracy in Royston can be taken straight from George Orwell's novel Animal Farm.

First, may I remind Cllr Kennedy of the dictionary definition of democracy which is: "A form of government for the people by the will of the majority of the people".

What I understand Cllr Kennedy to be saying is that although there has become a vacancy on the town council, because his Party, the Conservative Party, hold a majority on the council and more especially because the vacancy was caused by the death of a Conservative councillor, there is no need to hold an election in the disenfranchised ward.

The grounds so offered for this belief are that it would be vanity politics and a waste of the council taxpayer's money.

Cllr Kennedy, I think, many of us do indeed believe that it is council taxpayer's money, money held in trust by the Royston Town Council to be used for the benefit of the people of Royston, but I suggest that a proper use for that money includes helping to ensure that democracy is upheld and that a disenfranchised ward should not be hi-jacked by the Conservative Party.

So, the thing to do, according to Cllr Kennedy, is to co-opt one of his mates on to the council and to hell with the electors.

Cllr Kennedy's letter should be enshrined in stone and read by every elector in the country because it demonstrates exactly how a totalitarian state is established. Karl Marx would have been proud of you, Cllr Kennedy.

The argument is so plausible that the Thought Police would have no difficulty at all in ensuring that the people believed it, too.

And all this endorses Cllr Kennedy's life-long belief in Conservative Party philosophy, the Party in whose name Cllr Kennedy stands.

JEREMY FORDHAM Odsey