Earlier this week, Colchester Council's Labour group leader Tim Young wrote to the Gazette asking why the visit of shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry was not published.

The next day Mr Young was criticised for his letter.

I think your correspondents in Gazette Letters December 14 were a little hard on councillor Tim Young.

I asked my local bookie if he could give me odds on Mr Young becoming an MP but sadly he couldn’t.

Being a figure of fun is not all beer and skittles.

You do not automatically become imbued with wit and humour.

Leave him alone, I say.

Perhaps it would have been kinder to have whispered ‘Your petticoat is showing’.

James Baird Murray

Colchester