For more than two years we had a lame duck Prime Minister limping from one crises to another till finally we had an election.

The hope was for open and transparent government and people taking full responsibility for their actions.

On a national level it is promising – David Laws broke the rules and resigned.

Locally we appear to have a lame duck leadership, with two of its leaders up before the council’s standards board.

Leaders need to command respect and maintain discipline in their party.

The contrast could not be greater, prior to being up before the standards board himself, the leader of the council suspended then Cllr Clutterbuck over a printable homophobic joke.

Now Cllr Powell has sent unprintable racist jokes (Daily Echo, June 15) if Cllr MacLoughlin is to command respect and maintain discipline then Cllr Powell should be made to resign as a councillor.

If, however, he feels the jokes are not that bad perhaps the Echo should print them and allow the public to vote whether he should or stay or go.

Mike Carlile Bennett Road Charminster

We took the decision that the content of the texts was such that we could not consider printing them.

– Letters Editor