Sandra Gilfillan & Aidan Ruff
204 Heaton Road
Newcastle upon Tyne

30th May 2001

Dear Sandra Gilfillan and Aidan Ruff,

I received the election publicity for Aidan Ruff this morning. Having read the leaflet from cover to cover, I found that punctuation errors were more abundant than policies. In particular, you appear to be unsure of the correct use of the apostrophe.

It is worth pointing out that your education policies cannot be taken seriously when you are clearly struggling with something I learnt at primary school. However, in an attempt to help you out, I will describe the catalogue of errors within your literature.

Inside left-hand pane

• Point 1 - Labours' should read Labour's - the possessive of Labour has the apostrophe before its s.

Inside, left-hand page underneath Priorities title

• A Governments' should read A government's - singular of government (clear from the singular indefinite article) takes an apostrophe before the s.
• its' citizens should read its citizens - no apostrophe is used for the possessive pronoun.
• to fund Labours' pledge - there is only one Labour party here, so the apostrophe goes before the s - something you managed to get right elsewhere on the leaflet.

Inside middle

• the Governments' fuel tax should read the government's fuel tax - there is still only one government, this time indicated by the definite article, and the singular possessive still has the apostrophe before its s.

Right-hand folding flap

• the lack of interest shown by Labour in it's own heartland - matched only by your lack of interest in punctuation, the possessive pronoun its still does not take an apostrophe, not before its s nor after it, as you did earlier.

Obviously this is a matter of great embarrassment to you, and I hope that the above points will help you with future publications. Please let me know if you have any questions or wish to explain how such faulty literature was ever printed.

Yours sincerely,

Ashley Frieze.