Let's have a fair fight as election campaign looms

By spatterson

THIS election year is obviously going to be a busy one for the Echo and politicians, both nationally and locally, have begun to set out their stalls.

Many of your readers will have seen your contribution to the political debate in seeking the responses from the candidates for the three main parties to questions sent in by readers.

The candidates' answers obviously reflected their views, and those of their parties, but what did the articles reveal about the Echo and its sympathies?

The text of answers will have been pretty much what the candidates wrote, so what did your readers make of the following?

On Friday, Conservative candidate Karl McCartney's page was led by a picture of a hunt, with the headline being "The hunting ban is bad legislation and should be repealed. A government has important issues".

Neither of these sentences is an exact quote from Karl's actual answer.

He says he believes there are more important issues for people in the city than the fox hunting ban.

Why then did the Echo lead on this? Is it because the Echo, being Lincolnshire rather than just Lincoln, supports the repeal of the ban and wants to offer some balance to the large number of letters and articles recently published?

Or is it because the editor already knew that the Labour candidate's article, due the next day, would attack the Conservatives and falsely claim that repeal was a priority?

As Mr McCartney had pointed out, this was not the case.

The Labour page on Saturday is even more intriguing in what it reveals about the Echo's sympathies, or maybe sense of irony.

The headline is "Being an MP is a full-time job. Those seeking extra income cannot do justice to their constituents", with Miss Merron's actual words being "I have never had a second job outside Parliament ... MPs having an additional job ... cannot do justice to their constituents".

With Miss Merron's additional job as a Minister in the Department of Health just about doubling her salary as just an MP, what is the hidden agenda here?

Does it mean that the position as a Minister is not really a job, with the real work being done by the civil service, and the position is a reward for loyalty?

Or is it a reflection on the double standards of those now in power?

And your picture caption was a little too sycophantic, offering an example of NHS spending, when even the Echo itself has continuously reported the underfunding of the health service here in Lincolnshire and the compromising of safety at our hospital as some managers try to achieve the targets imposed by Miss Merron's Labour Government.

This election promises to be an exciting one in many ways.

I hope the Echo will not display partiality to any one candidate – a level playing field would give the Echo credit, rather than alienating a proportion of your readership.

Carly Lisette Warren Greetwellgate, Lincoln.