HAS Councillor Frank Clifford been dining on a few too many magic mushrooms lately, or is he really so out of touch with what is going on around him as his remarkable comments in Letters, September 15?

So the hauliers and farmers staged the fuel protest for personal gain? Poppycock!

They, like the rest of us, are sick and tired of paying outrageous prices for fuel. The only difference being that instead of sitting and whining about the situation in the hope that our out-of-touch government might act off their own bats, these laudable, ordinary folk have done something about it. And we should all be offering them our grateful thanks.

Farmers and hauliers are going to the wall every week. They are fighting for their survival and that of their families.

As to Coun Clifford's parting shot "the Countryside Alliance flexing their muscles purely for personal gain," he really has lost the plot.

Since when has the CA had anything to do with fuel protests. Remove your Blairite blinkers and put the blame where it belongs -- at the doorstep of 10 and 11 Downing Street and their partners in greed, the oil companies.

SHIRLEY WHITELEY (Mrs), Southfield Lane, Nelson.