GREEN Party parliamentary candidate, Prof Whitelegg, has been publicly accused in the pages of your newspaper of misleading your readers.

Richard Newman-Thompson, vice-chairman of the Lancaster branch of the Labour Party asked; 'Has the Green Party ever supported the construction of a new road as a solution to a traffic problem'? - Yes replied the professor, adding, 'I did do many years ago'.

It was later pointed out, by Jonathan Sear, Green Party councillor, of all people, that the answer to the question was, in fact, 'No'.

He further pointed out that the proposal for a new road that the professor had supported came years before there even was a local Green Party.The matter was then taken up by an Oxford University student of local origins.

He/she pointed out that the question that had been asked of Prof Whitelegg was straightforward.

The professor answers 'Yes' alleges the student, when he knew perfectly well that the answer should have been 'no'.

The fact that he rambled on about he,himself, having supported a new road when he knew that the question referred to the Green party and not to himself personally, could only be an attempt to muddy the waters.

Whitelegg's response to Newman-Thompson has been to accuse RNT of: '...

dragging down the level of debate.' His response to the Oxford student (who doesn't seem to have much time for any politician) has, so far, been to ignore him/her.

This will not do professor.

You are accused of deliberately seeking to mislead people whom you seek to represent in parliament.

What is your reply? Why did you answer a question about yourself when it was quite clearly a question about the Green Party, thereby giving entirely the wrong impression about the party's history and record? Did you not understand the question? That would be the only reply that could get you off this particular hook.

On the other hand if you didn't understand it, how did you manage the complexities of academic life and how could you hope to understand parliamentary procedure? Answers please professor.

Ray Hill Lancaster