As ever, the Insider (Oxford Mail, April 3) is breathtakingly good at missing out important context and partial reporting to provide the basis for a peevish jibe.

He accuses me of a double standard in saying more needs to be done to help first-time buyers on to the housing ladder while, at the same time, opposing new development just south of Oxford.

To do so, he conveniently ignores the explanation in the final paragraph of the blog he was referring to.

The result is a total misrepresentation of my view.

That explanation bears repetition here to set the record straight.

"We need to break the vicious circle. The only way to do that is by concentrating far more on the delivery of affordable homes.

"Blithely building thousands of homes and concreting over the countryside will do little to deflate housing prices in a country that already has 26 million dwellings."

There is a simple mathematical truth about that statement that most people understand.

The point I was making was that we need a far more sophisticated approach to this problem from Government than we are getting.

It is the second time that the Insider has had to be told this.

Does he have some kind of allergy to context, or does it just suit his pre-ordained agenda to exclude it?

KEITH MITCHELL Leader Oxfordshire County Council