I HAVE NOT YET FOUND THE RIGHT BUTTON to enable your comments to show on the blog page. Until I find it, I will copy and paste them, unedited, from my email feed.

‘HONEST’ commented, “I love this blog. It is so nice to see Wisbech and to remember the history of this town over the years. Personally I feel that the Dail Mail have hidden agendas as to their portrayal of this town as this as present is no different to any other town.

I for one am an advocate for bridging any divides that have arisen over the years in relation to nationalities that have moved to Great Britain. I truly hope that something positive can come out of this. Keep up the good work and making us giggle on facebook :)”

‘SOCRATES’ said,” And it customary to rely, even if you hate the commentator, especially if you've only one comment and the whole blog. It's the way to build Community ;) Yea? It's like, you don't like the guy because he's foreign, but put-up with him because he does the gutters for £20, and then you meet his three year old daughter, and student-nurse wife, and she tells you how her grandmother was shot by Stalin, and how happy she is that Estonia is now part of the EU and she could leave... (Most of this commen

t happened) and then said, “Are you related to Cambridge Scraper? You're both clearly in love with Johnny “two pencils” Elworthy.Not so keen on the Tory, myself, walnut cake or no walnut cake, what with being disabled and all that, but a bloody good effort all round - let down only by the lack of Boobies.

Could we have a post on the Tribal War with March? Or is that as touchy a subject as the Armenian Genocide to a Turk?”

'JAY TURNER' posted, “Excellent Articles, I personally think its all been blown totally out of content and the media are full of their usual c**p as regards Wisbech, migrants etc, were no different than any other town of this size, yes things could be better as it is deprived at present but hope for the future, this publicity needs to be turned towards a positive! Well done, I'd vote for you! :)

I AM NORMALLY A GREAT FAN OF OUR LOCAL PAPER, ‘The Wisbech Standard’, and more particularly of its editor, John Elworthy. He has a great track record of campaigning journalism, and in particular, he has been the scourge of what he sees as local political buffoons, skulduggery in the council chambers, and misuse of public money. With this week’s edition, however, I am reminded of the following lines from ‘Silver Blaze’, a Sherlock Holmes story.

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."

Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

In the light of the recent lurid accounts of Wisbech in Daily Mail, I would have expected TWS to take a long hard look at the town, and examine whether or not there was any substance behind the hysteria, and perhaps talk to ordinary local people about their perceptions. Instead, what did we get? Pages of bland waffle, led by Steve Barclay, MP, Alan Melton, leader of Fenland District Council, and Nick Clarke, leader of Cambs County Council. Oh, and I nearly forgot – there was a reassuring letter from Councillor Simon King, telling us that The Bramley Line was safe in his hands. Followers of John Elworthy’s Twitter feeds will know that he has been a considerable thorn in the sides of some of these gentlemen, and yet now, they are wheeled out to make comforting statements about what a wonderful place Wisbech is. Are there any conspiracy theorists out there? Contact me, please, if you have your own theories!

Readers of this blog, and followers of my posts on Twitter and Facebook will know that I have a great deal of affection for Wisbech and its eccentricities, but they will also know that I am not delusional. If it quacks, has webbed feet and paddles about in the pond, it is probably a duck. Therefore, I recognise there are serious problems in Wisbech, which actual residents of the town are well aware of. These need discussing and addressing, not submerging under a blanket of political ifs and maybes.

INCIDENTALLY, who noticed the little visual irony in the photo-montage under the masthead?  A little picture of Mrs Strudwick, Head of Thomas Clarkson, shaking hands with Mr Barclay. It was only in the last fortnight that the following sequence of events unfolded.

• It was announced that Mrs S was going to have to apply for her own job
• The Brooke Weston partnership says “No thanks.” to Mrs S, but they have made an appointment
• TCCC announced as 16^th worst school in the land
• The ‘new appointment’ mysteriously disappears
• The Grande Fromage of Brooke Weston, Sir Peter Simpson, to take over as Head

Ah well, only in Wisbech!