Last week on your letters page, Cllr Ed O’Driscoll began a letter to the Editor with the words “Thank you for offering me the right of reply to letters attacking me during the current election campaign”. When councillors put themselves up for election perhaps it is worth all of these councillors remembering that people will raise issues and ask questions.
In Cllr O’Driscoll’s letter the week before that to the Gazette he referred to the “Liberal Democrat controlled council”. He has been putting out publicity which at least looks like claiming the good achievements of the council as being a product of that Lib Dem ‘control’.
Another Lib Dem Cllr, Chris Bartrum, commented last week on social media: “I'm part of the only political grouping that works hard all year round in the town. Liberal Democrats keep in touch with voters with regular Focus leaflets, surveys and letters. All the rest - Conservatives, Labour, Greens, independents - do nothing between one election and the next and then pop up and promise all sorts of things that the Liberal Democrats are already doing!” Of course, it’s well known that there are non-Lib Dem councillors that are hugely dedicated, who put in incredibly hard work to make Ross better and help the community.
This week, Cllr O’Driscoll on his official social media has published the result of him asking ChatGPT “why people should vote LibDem in the upcoming elections”. He introduced what it had to say by exclaiming “it’s done rather a good job!”.
Out of curiosity I thought I’d ask ChatGPT why it might not be wise to allude that good work done by a council is very often a product of one political party. I wonder what readers will think?
This is what ChatGPT said: “It does not come across well to claim that the good work done by the council is all done by councillors who belong to one political party. This is because it is likely that good work has been accomplished by councillors from different political parties who have worked collaboratively to achieve positive outcomes for the community”, ChatGPT went on to say “Claiming that the good work is only due to the efforts of one political party can create a perception of partisanship and bias. It can also create division and undermine the spirit of collaboration that is necessary to achieve the best outcomes for the community. Additionally, it may be seen as an attempt to gain political advantage and may harm the reputation and credibility of the council.” I think it’s done rather a good job!