SIR – I am writing to protest at the blatant political bias of you newspaper. I have often observed this bias, but this week s edition (March 11) included a particularly extreme example in your reporting of the news that the GP-led clinic has been

SIR - I am writing to protest at the blatant political bias of you newspaper.

I have often observed this bias, but this week's edition (March 11) included a particularly extreme example in your reporting of the news that the GP-led clinic has been approved and is due to open in June.

One would expect this to be presented as a piece of good news for those who have long-had difficulties in making appointments with their GP that they can keep without taking time off work or, in the case of children or some older people, requiring others to take time off work to take them to the surgery.

I would, therefore, have expected this to be reported independently under a good news headline.

Instead the headline was selected from the grudging comments of our MP, with his photo 'just chancing' to be above the article (is there ever an edition without his photograph?); the article itself contained as much about his comments as about the news itself.

Of course, he and the other politicians have a right to make their comments (where were the Liberals, by the way?) but they should be separate from an objective and informative report of the news item.

Grant Shapps' comment about fears that the development of the clinic could lead to an 'impersonalised service' is unfounded scaremongering, as people can choose to remain registered with their current practices and use the clinic only when it is more convenient for them and those who do opt to register at the clinic will be able to choose to see a doctor of their choice just as they would at an individual surgery.

It must be galling for our MP to find that the very GPs whose negative initial comments he chose to quote when plans were first considered are now the very people who will be running the clinic, presumably having realised that this is a practical way of responding to the complaints of their patients who find it so hard to obtain an appointment under the present system, with crowded surgeries and phone lines blocked.

I begin to resent paying 55p for political propaganda that I could presumably obtain free from our MP's office and I hope that I would be making a similar plea for objectivity in our local press if I were an ardent supporter of his party.

Betty Saunders,

Birchall Wood,

WGC.

Editor's note: If I had a pound for every time myself and my paper has been accused of political bias, from representatives of all three major parties, I'd be a rich man. I am satisfied, by the fact we upset all three equally, we are, indeed, totally unbiased.