It is generous of Susan Thomas (Thursday’s ViewPoints, May 12) to cast Keith Mitchell as a wit and satirist, a modern-day Juvenal or Horace perhaps.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines satire as “the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues”.
Mr Mitchell certainly scores when it comes to ridiculing many of those he has been elected to represent.
He does, however, mostly rely on disdain, contempt and condescension; and as for wit, he rarely rises above the silly and the sneering.
As for the policies he promotes and applies, there is nothing remotely humourous about their consequences for the people of Oxfordshire.
No doubt Mr Mitchell does, as Susan Thomas declares, “work very hard”, as do his constituents across the county, many of whom will soon not have jobs at which to “work very hard”. No satire here!
Bruce Ross-Smith, Bowness Avenue, Headington, Oxford
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