MOST of the people who write letters to your Worcester News do so out of genuine concern and feeling for an issue.

A vibrant readers’ page is indeed the beating heart of any newspaper. It serves as both a barometer of public engagement and also a check on the pompous and powerful.

I should know this better than most, having once edited the letters page during my years on the staff of the newspaper.

Of course, there are a few – and it is a minority – who want to shut down rather than stimulate debate.

Such individuals are easy to spot.

These are the cliché slingers – they say other people’s views are “unacceptable”, that wonderful catch-all adjective of the politically correct classes. Those who dare to raise such subjects as immigration levels are ‘racist’. People who presume to challenge the moral dimension of our EU membership are ‘xenophobic’.

And so on. With a bit of practice, you will be able to see them as mile off. Go on, have a go – spotting synthetic outrage can be a great spectator sport.

*THERE’S a beautiful bit of jargon-speak courtesy of a civic leader who shall remain nameless: “We now have a clear steer from the three councils.”

That’s so good it should have been entered in the poetry section of next year’s Worcester Literary Festival.