Sorry state

Sir – What is so damning about the decision by a city official to ban the Passion Play for whatever reason is that it apparently never occurred to them to take the trouble to find out about the event before slapping a banning notice on it. The country is in a sorry state when relatively minor officials, whose purpose is to serve the community and whose salary is paid for out of our taxes, can act with such draconian authority. That such an official should not know that a Passion Play was a religious event beggars belief.