LETTER: Don't swallow all you hear about fracking

However, when he attacks Sir Alan and Labour for not supporting fracking, Barry is choosing to ignore the hundreds of peer-reviewed academic studies from America and elsewhere that show negative effects of fracking.

In my view he also ignores the fact that on this topic, if opposed, Sir Alan would represent a significant proportion of public opinion in Mansfield and nationally.

Recent opinion surveys have shown the proportion of the public disapproving of fracking soaring as they discover what it involves and the relative number of supporters declining.

In my view Barry swallows the corporate propaganda of the likes of INEOS and swaggering millionaire Jim Ratcliffe regarding a jobs and money bonanza when the reality, in my view, is significant risk to health, water supplies, other local industries and house prices.

On this topic Labour represent, along with the Greens and other parties, a significant and growing section of the public, including Barry’s “working people” (at least those canny enough not to believe the blatant propaganda of Murdoch’s Sun!)

Paul Frost

Mansfield