Who can we believe?

 'Poor air quality'  posters . Fake news?

The poster that alarmed me . Who put these up?

The stink across town together with those posters made people like me worried

Vague poster that must be upsetting if you live along Southern Rail routes.

When I spotted the poster telling me to take an alternative route because of high levels of pollution I believed it. For a couple of days there had been an unpleasant smell hanging over the town and I linked the two things together. I had to carry on breathing of course but I took my photo of the poster to the tourist information office as we have no police station in Petersfield.

No one knew anything about it and I felt like I was in a science fiction zone.

Now the Petersfield Post is telling me that the town council did not put out that poster. Someone has done a clever cut and paste job with their logos. But whom? Who would want to alarm the population with lies? 

Also this week I noticed the poster above. If I lived in Chichester or worked in Chichester I would be upset by that poster. It's too vague. When exactly will I be unable to travel? 

It reminds me of the old questions journalists are taught to answer : What? Who? Where? When? Why? How? (Not necessarily in that order.) In these days of pre-emptive text on our computers have we forgotten to ask ourselves some basic questions?

With the government appearing completely chaotic right now. Who can we believe? If we have another election right now, who can we trust to be earnestly trying to make this country a better place to live in? 

I am reminded of the old saying and wonder if it is correct:

'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

But I still believe that the vast majority of people are good and can be trusted, it's just a matter of picking out which ones we can believe and which ones we shouldn't believe...