I know Si is sympathetic to this view and would like us to shut up and go away.
As Si has already said if you have a problem with your dealings with CTC NO then contact your councillor, and if he/she won’t help then contact another councillor or chair of council but don’t just moan on here and expect things to happen, they won’t.
I think that you misread the approach adopted by the forum staff (well, by me at least).
I do not want anyone to shut up or go away at all.
This is the CTC forum and as such its members and potential members should be perfectly free to discuss and air their opinion of the CTC, its policies and its processes.
HOWEVER, speaking as a moderator, I request that any such discussion is done in a polite, respectful and civil way; a way that is constructive, precise and does not target individuals or throw insults around. It has been pointed out already that one of the reasons that National Office does not like to contribute to threads anymore is that in the past things have turned ugly and people have been victimised. Hence, my comments above about phrases like "conspiracy theorists" having the potential to draw discussion away from the real issues (of, for instance, whether the membership form I'm about to put in the post will result in my membership going through with no hassle this year?). Likewise, phrases such as "don't bloody patronise me" also give the impression that hackles are being raised and that things are starting to get a little personal. So, I will re-emphasise, my role as a mod here is to stop the thread becoming a slug-fest or witch hunt against individuals, but my role is certainly not to try to discourage reasonable debate.
It is certainly true that I encourage people to contact National Office or their councillor directly if they want to be sure that someone has read and will acknowledge their problems. However, I see know reason why problems should not be discussed here also as long as the contents of the above paragraph are borne in mind, and people realise that the forum is not a replacement for direct contact, but a possible addition to it.
Hope that has cleared things up...carry on.