³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

A bizarre scene moments before this morning's press conference about Cornwall Council's budget cuts: Councillor Doris Ansari, OBE, Justice of the Peace and one of the longest-serving figures in Cornish local government of this or any generation was chucked out, on the orders of chief executive Kevin Lavery.

Kevin's explanation was that the press conference was a private meeting. He said that if he allowed Doris into the room, he might have to afford similar access to 121 other councillors (I have to say this does seem rather improbable.)

Technically, Kevin is quite correct - press conferences are not covered by the same Public Bodies (Admissions to Meetings) Act of 1960 which governs most local council business. But I don't think I'm the only reporter who felt rather uneasy about Doris's exclusion.

One of the fundamental tenets upon which rests our concept of a free press is that journalists enjoy only the same rights and privileges as every other citizen. Once you start deciding who can and who cannot report things, you are on a very slippery slope.

Without meaning to, Kevin had reminded us that we were only there because he had invited us. I felt relieved that ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Cornwall had already reported the story in some depth the previous week, by entirely independent means.

Now Doris is not the sort of person to be chucked out of anywhere without protest and she made her feelings quite clear before she left the press conference. There was no suggestion that she was planning to disrupt proceedings, start heckling or try to steal the limelight in any way. The practical effect of her exclusion was to give the impression of a council which was unsure, nervous - afraid, even - in rather the same way that the Labour Party heavies who in 2005 ejected from their conference 82-year-old Walter Wolfgang revealed all the opposites of what they were trying to achieve.

Doris was first elected to the former Cornwall County Council in 1980 and has been a familiar face at County Hall ever since. She was first elected to Truro City Council in 1971. In 1971, Kevin Lavery was still at primary school.