Sir, – There's nothing scarier for a writer than a blank sheet of paper. I learned the truth of this maxim as a cub reporter on a weekly newspaper in the 1970s.

Monday mornings would bring the task of filling endless broadsheet pages with the unpromising material provided by parish council minutes, women's institute reports and the occasional obituary of some local worthy. The job got done but it was often a close-run thing.

How I wish Stockton South MP James Wharton was by my side in those days.

I have just received in the post Mr Wharton's four-page A3 newsletter. It contains the following information.

Mr Wharton is not happy about Benefits Street, but there's not much he can do to stop it. He has visited a credit union and local company. He tells us the tax disc is no more. And there is a personal attack on his Labour opponent Louise Baldock.

And that's it. Not a word on the NHS, austerity, the seemingly unending cuts to public services and the continued squeeze on low and middle earners.

Postage and production can't come cheap. But Mr Wharton does not lack money for his campaign. The Register of Interests shows donations since 2013 of more than £70,000 from individuals and organisations, so there's probably plenty more of this space-filling to come before May 2015.

Rarely can so much effort and money been expended to say so very little.

MICHAEL CLARK

Secretary, Stockton South Constituency Labour Party.