THE general and county council elections have been put off until June, but there's no respite from the election hoo-hah, what with candidates pulling out in a huff because they don't like being ordered around by agents, family snaps of other candidates in terrible sweaters and in loving poses with the wife and kids arriving in shoals via our e-mail, and snippets of whispered gossip from yet others saying 'you didn't hear this from me... but'.

And of course the letters have started as well from the prospective candidates seeking to score points off the opposition.

First out of the starting blocks is the prospective Lib Dem candidate for Aylesbury, Peter Jones, who has taken exception to a newspaper put out by the county council to all households this month.

He calls it a Tory 'puff piece', paid for by the council tax payers, arriving conveniently in time for the election, which fails to mention how terrible things are in Bucks.

Lib Dems would never pull a stunt like that, he says.

I am a big fan of Peter's though I can't see him winning the election but I have to say 'who do you think you are trying to kid?'.

So the county council has brought out a glossy newspaper just before the election.

But ALL the district councils in the county have been using council tax payers' money for years to bring out newsletters containing sunny articles about things they want publicised.

The slow, old county council is just the last of the bunch to jump on this particular propaganda bandwagon.

Chiltern District Council, of which Peter is a member, has brought out the Chiltern Chronicle for years twice a year.

Aylesbury Vale District Council publishes District Link four times a year - and the paper was started when the council was Lib Dem controlled.

Wycombe district has Community Voice, started when the council was jointly run by the Lib Dems and Labour.

And South Bucks has the South Bucks Report three times a year.

If Peter had written a letter to this paper saying that all these organs are a waste of public money, and that people who want up-to-date news about what their councils are doing, warts and all, should buy their local newspaper, now that would have been something to applaud him for.