Monday 9 February 2015
Lib Dem Spin Doctor feels ‘Disenfranchised’
On Sunday morning, I was made aware of a blog-post by Roisin
Miller on Liberal Democrat Voice, an
independent website for Lib Dem supporters, entitled: ‘An
MP who takes me for granted has left me feeling disenfranchised’. What
followed was a nebulous - but direct - attack on me as an MP, saying that I
took my so-called ’safe seat’ for granted. In particular, apparently my
responses to Ms Miller’s communiqués were ‘half-hearted’, I’m not ‘a
particularly good MP’, she hasn’t received any literature from me in 3 years,
and locally Conservatives are failing to ‘engage with the electorate’. I think
Ms Miller deserves a response.
First, she might have mentioned that she was Ed Davey’s
local spin doctor and Kingston & Surbiton Lib Dems’ campaign manager until
August 2013 – and has run as a candidate in various local elections. Nothing
wrong with that. But Ms Miller is not just any old local ‘activist’. She’s a
professional politician having a go at her local Tory nemesis.
Nonetheless, it’s fair game to highlight lazy MPs who take
strong majorities for granted. It’s just that, since I was selected as the
Conservative candidate by open primary in 2009, in a process open to every
resident regardless of political affiliation, I have been anything but lazy. In
the 2010 election, we had 72% turnout – compared to 65% nationally, and higher
than Kingston – a tribute to the efforts my team and I made to galvanise
interest. Neither I nor voters were remotely complacent.
Ms Miller lives in Molesey. I live in and commute from
neighbouring Thames Ditton. I spend a lot of time in Molesey – all documented
on my blog here. Up at
Westminster, I’ve been independent-minded, for example, campaigning against the
snooper’s charter, and supporting a beefed up Right of Recall against MPs –
examples of issues that many Lib Dems care about, as well as Conservatives.
Ms Miller says my replies to her emails have been
‘half-hearted’. Really? I won’t disclose the content, but I have written to
senior officials and Ministers on a wide range of issues. Ms Miller is no
stranger to the ‘campaign email’, but has invariably got a personal reply from
me. I have written to her substantively seven times in two years.
Next, Ms Miller says she hasn’t had any other literature
from me in three years. In fact, I send an annual ‘Westminster Report’,
delivered by Royal Mail, to every address in the constituency. She should have
had at least two since she moved here - perhaps one or other got swept up into
the bin with pizza leaflets, who knows? But, since Ms Miller signed up for my
monthly e-bulletin in April 2013, I am starting to wonder whether she isn’t
being rather economical with the truth, when she says she‘s ‘had nothing’ from me
in three years.
What about face-to-face contact? In addition to the local
events I do, like any MP, I also hold public meetings every six months across
the constituency – advertised variously, including via my e-bulletin – so
residents can raise any local or national issue. I have held six in Molesey alone
since February 2012, 40 in total since May 2010. These meetings have been
vibrant, sometimes challenging. In Molesey, working with local councillor Steve
Bax, we’ve tackled a range of issues – including parking regulations, getting
behind community ideas for buying the Jolly Boatman site (a longstanding local
bug-bear), and liaising with Heathrow to secure the suspension of local flight
trial paths. If Ms Miller is so ‘politically engaged’, why hasn’t she been
along to any of these meetings to make her voice heard?
There are two ironies in all this. The first is that, if the
Lib Dems had their way, and we changed the voting system to Proportional
Representation, it would break the constituency link between elector and
elected that ensures local residents can hold MPs like me to account. The
current system may not be perfect, but the alternatives are far worse.
Second, for all Ms Miller’s attack on ‘Tory complacency’,
she was in charge of Ed Davey’s local PR and Kingston Lib Dems’ local campaigns
until recently. As we went into the last election, Ed Davey had a bigger
majority than my predecessor did in Esher and Walton. Mr Davey’s seat is now
viewed as ultra-marginal, and Kingston Lib Dems lost control of the council. In
contrast, my majority in Esher and Walton doubled in 2010, and since then local
Conservatives have assiduously retained a council long controlled by opposition
groups.
For my part, working with a great local team, I’m energetically
engaging with voters, regardless of their political views and by any means
possible. For hers, Ms Miller confesses she hasn’t even bothered to register to
vote. If she really feels disenfranchised, I can only extend a warm invitation
to her to attend my upcoming Molesey public meeting - as it happens next
Wednesday, 7.30pm start, at St Mary’s Church hall in East Molesey.
Update: having originally declined a right of reply, Liberal Democrat Voice changed their mind and published this post on their site. Credit where it's due.
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7 comments:
Dominic: LDV have published your response.
That's funny. I've just read "this response to Ms Miller" on Liberal Democrat Voice.
Your evidence for LDV declining a right of reply?
That is an absolute untruth. You were given various options during our dialogue yesterday.
Dear Caron (aka LDV editor),
I'm not sure if anyone's interested in this tittle tattle, but as you have asked, when I requested a right of reply you emailed saying: 'If you simply want to respond to the points Roisin made about you personally, then you can do so in the comments.
However, we think it might be good if you were to tackle the wider point she made about the electoral system creating such safe seats which leaves many people feeling disenfranchised'.
I pressed that I wanted a right to reply to the substance of Roisin Miller's post, rather than an opportunity to engage in a wider frolic on electoral reform. You replied: 'As I said in my previous email, we would like you to look at the wider principle of a system that creates so many safe seats and how this can be a good thing when it’s argued that competition improves the marketplace.'
I'm sure people can make their own minds up. In any event, I appreciate you belatedly agreeing to publish my post without trying to edit it.
Dominic
Did the nasty girl pick on you? You must have had a very sheltered poltiical background judging by your disproportionate over-reaction to this (which doesn't seem to have involved much thought about how many more of your constituents will now be looking at the original piece!)
Very happy for my constituents to make their own mind up. Not prepared to let someone publish rubbish about me on a national blog. DR
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