Laurie Taylor, of Collapark, Totnes, writes:

I am one of many on our MP’s (Anthony Mangnall’s) residents’ mailing list. On July 28, after parliament went into recess, I received his ‘end of term’ update.

In this update, where he flags up how much local work he is doing, he highlights five particular areas of his parochial work:

1. Holding water companies to account.

2. Engaging and working with local headteachers.

3. Campaigning to keep our train ticket offices open.

4. Levelling Up the South West.

5. Changing the name of Totnes constituency.

I have raised the question of does Mr Mangnall understand irony before... and here we go again!

The first three of his projects are actually dealing with the failure of his own party’s governance over the last 13 years. How bizarre!

Maybe he’s trying to gaslight the electorate prior to a general election? He has a record of saying one thing and then, bowing to the tyranny of the party whipping system and his own ambition, voting contrarily as he’s instructed so to do.

His fourth project, Levelling Up, was described in January 2023 by the Institute for Government thus… “The fund is another ineffective funding pot that is neither large enough nor targeted enough to make a dent in regional inequalities”. Sounds like an impossible job for Mr Mangnall.

Hey… but sounds good… which is what it’s meant to of course.

Number 5… I’m not that bothered what Totnes constituency is called. South Devon sounds accurate to me. Much better to change our undemocratic and broken voting system to PR (proportional representation)… now that would be something worth Mr Mangnall’s time and energy.