WHEN it comes to our politicians, we really cannot have it both ways.

Either we are happy to swallow the bland, sanitised and generally meaningless drivel spouted by many of them, or we welcome the no-nonsense, politically-incorrect pronouncements of the rapidly diminishing few.

So, we were tempted to tell you that, when county council leader Keith Mitchell likened the Oxford Mail to a harlot over our coverage of the authority’s huge pension investments in the tobacco industry, he was wrong to do so.

He is of course wrong on the harlot front, but wasn’t wrong to say what he felt.

Because, if he had bitten his lip, unlikely in the case of Mr M, we accept, then he would have joined the brainwashed band of anodyne sound bite specialists who infest local and national government these days, too terrified of saying what they really think for fear of offending someone.

Mr Mitchell’s other claims about our story in his entertaining political blog are, frankly, nonsense and are underpinned by the belief at county hall that there are Reds Under the Bed in the Mail newsroom bent on fomenting the overthrow of the Tory regime. We suspect an overdose of Cold War spy thrillers may be to blame.

But Mr Mitchell doesn’t go muttering into his pint over it, or whispering his theories in the corridors of power. He comes out with it, often without pause for thought. He has made enemies in doing so, sometimes deservedly so.

Ponder this, however: when he steps down later this year, would you rather have a new leader who said what he honestly thought, come what may, or a PR expert’s ventriloquist dummy?

We’re no friends of Mr Mitchell, but in the interests of open debate and freedom of expression, we’ll take the former over the latter any day. And if you value democracy, so should you.