Town twinning is a limited minority interest

There has been much correspondence in our columns in recent weeks about the twinning arrangements between Pendle and the Palestian West Bank settlement of Beit Leed.

Views have been exchanged between supporters and opponents of the agreement – but both sides represent a tiny minority of the populace.

Indeed, until the name of Beit Leed cropped up when the proposal to twin us with the settlement was first announced, Mr Pendle had never heard of the place. He thinks the same could be said for 99% of people in Pendle.

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Similarly, he would guess a fair proportion of local people neither know nor care that we have been twinned with the French town of Creil and the German town of Marl for many years – and that is Mr Pendle’s argument.

Twinning is of a limited minority interest – and it gives a few people an excuse to jet off to foreign parts claiming they “represent” Pendle.

But they certainly are not representing Mr Pendle.

He was not consulted on the twinning arrangements being made.

Nor was he consulted on whether he wanted a delegation to visit these foreign parts on his behalf.

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As far as Mr Pendle is concerned, he cannot think of a single way in which he has personally benefited from the twinning links which have supposedly been forged on his behalf – either with our Continental cousins or new found “friends” from further afield.

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