Friday 12 August 2011

Andy Slaughter stays away from Parliament

Our MP is in the firing line after deciding to stay on holiday instead of returning to the emergency Parliamentary debate which was called in the wake of the London riots. Rival and neighbouring MP Greg Hands, along with H&F Councillor Greg Smith were both furiously tweeting about their nemesis' absence, as parliamentarians took turns to debate the causes and responses to the week's violence.

I have since had it confirmed that Mr Slaughter did indeed decide to stay away and continue his holiday. So expect more criticism from the local Tories about that.

At first sight it does seem a bit of a strange decision, you have to admit, and Andy will need to speak for himself about why he chose not to come. But frankly for my own part I wondered what the point of a parliamentary debate was even when it was called. We as the public have just shelled out hundreds of thousands of pounds to fly holidaying Members of Parliament from their holiday destinations around the world to London - and then back again.

For what? The sad thing about yesterday's debate in the House was how painfully obvious it was that MPs really don't have any better idea than the rest of us about why these events took place, so quite what we gained from that is beyond me. It might have been money better spent if it had been given to the Police - now there's a thought..

4 comments:

  1. I'd be curious to see local tories get on his case - wasn't one of them just tweeting this week (re: the pleas for Cameron to come back from hols) that the issue of politicians and hols was irrelevant? (I can't find that tweet now....)

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  2. Pretty poor show from our MP but difficult not to agree with Peter Oborne on the Parliamentary debate - http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100100708/the-moral-decay-of-our-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/

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  3. All MPs should have returned to Parliament. And Government Ministers should have come back sooner - as should the London Mayor.

    MPs exist to represent their constituents in Parliament. In a national debate on a matter of such importance any MP that did not attend failed his constituents.

    Whether Parliament managed to come up with a solution or not isn't really the point. If the country's elected representatives hadn't gathered to debate this then there really isn't much point in having a parliamentary democracy.

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  4. Be nice if he spent a little less time worrying about the Middle East and giving a running commentary on the arab spring and had a little more concern for his constiuents and the poor people of Hammersmith who call him their MP.

    What a disgrace that every London MP was in the house, except ours.

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