Well met, Mr Gray It was amusing to read James Gray’s comments in your last issue regarding the debate over the future of the Fire Service. For a son of the manse – as he is – to state, almost in exasperation, that “he does not know Graham Payne from Santa Claus” is disingenuous in the extreme.

He recently released a copy of a letter he wrote on December 16 last to the Chief Fire Officer for Wiltshire. Amongst the carbon copy recipients of that letter were Eric Pickles MP, Brandon Lewis MP and one bloke (whom, allegedly, he has never heard of) called Graham Payne.

Fast forward a couple of months to February 14and the Chief Fire Officer for Wiltshire invited the Wiltshire MPs to a meeting at Fire Brigade HQ in Potterne to discuss the options open to the Fire & Rescue Service. This meeting lasted almost two hours and Mr Gray was sitting on the opposite side of a four-foot wide table to myself. Also present were two other MPs, the Chief Fire Officer and his deputy.

We were subjected to an extensive bout of bombastic arrogance from Mr Gray during which he demonstrated his complete lack of knowledge about the matter under discussion. At the end of the session I could fully understand by his attitude why, despite having been an elected MP for 17 years, he remains a parliamentary non entity.

Graham Payne (aka Santa Claus), Dursley Road,, Trowbridge.