Boundary changes: a former MP's view

I had to go to Telford Central train station yesterday to pick up some tickets for a colleague and bumped into Chris Gill.

Chris was the Conservative MP for the Ludlow constituency between 1987 and 2001 and is now a UKIP candidate.

Proposed Bridgnorth & Telford South Constituency

One of the things we talked about was the proposed change to the Telford constituency which will see Albrighton, Bridgnorth, Broseley, Much Wenlock and Shifnal become part of a Bridgnorth & Telford South constituency and Oakengates and Trench move into the Wrekin constituency.  Brookside will be part of the Bridgnorth & South Telford constituency.

The new constituency (assuming the boundary changes go ahead as planned) will see David Wright lose his seat if previous elections are anything to go by.  His majority last year dropped to just 981 and none of the five towns that will join the constituency are Labour-voting areas whilst the two areas that are being moved into the Wrekin are.

There were some aspects of the proposed changes that I hadn't considered but which Chris, having been an MP, has.  The main one was the problems the new MP would have dealing with two different local authorities, especially when one is largely a rural local authority (Shropshire Council) and the other a predominantly urban local authority (Telford & Wrekin).  How can an MP properly represent the interests of his or her constituents (as articulated through the councillors) when those interests are conflicting?

When I get hold of a polling district breakdown for last year's election I will have a better idea of how the proposed changes will affect our constituency.

(Thanks to Shropshire Live for pointing me in the direction of the maps)


Cross-posted from: Stuart Parr for Brookside

Scum Sucking Tories

Scum Sucking Tories

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.  My MP (until May if he manages to hang on that long) David Wright has landed himself in a spot of bother with his inappropriate use of Twitter.  It was inevitable really, he’s been at it for some time now.

There’s been a bit of a tweetmeme going on throughout the day with people explaining why they’ve never voted Tory/Labour using #ivenevervotedtory and #ivenevervotedlabour hashtags.

But David Wright, a junior minister in the Treasury for a few years now, had to take it too far with the comment “#ivenevervotedtory because you can put lipstick on a scum-sucking pig, but it’s still a scum-sucking pig. And cos they would ruin Britain”.

I noticed the tweet earlier but I was out with my kids and so I didn’t make anything of it but it’s ok because Tory Radio noticed it and took a screenshot (above) and then Iain Dale picked up on it.

David deleted the tweet an hour after it was posted and apologised but then, bizarrely, subsequently claimed that his Twitter account had been tinkered with!  But here’s the funny thing: it’s exactly his normal style and exactly the sort of juvenile insult he comes out with aimed at the Tories all the time.

I’ve started favouriting some of his more interesting tweets such as this inciteful comment on George Osbourne in Parliament:

Georgey Porgey looks like he is holding in a big fart

Whether he looked like he was holding in a big fart I don’t know but is this an appropriate comment from an MP, let alone a Minister in the British government?  Since December he’s drunk-tweeted me, insulted me and even tried to intimidate me to stop me from asking him questions about Labour laundering taxpayers money through the unions to get state funding for the party and whether he’s a union-sponsored MP (he refuses to tell say).

But rather than take it on the chin after apologising, he quickly changed his story and said his Twitter account had been hacked.  Absolute nonsense if you ask me!  Iain Dale is now calling for support for the Tory PPC for David’s Telford constituency, Tom Biggins who already has a big advantage over David Wright in that he’s not Labour and he’s not David Wright but David does have some support still in the sinkhole housing estates that make up the bulk of his constituency.  I want David Wright out of office as much as the Tories do but I won’t be voting for Tom Biggins who’s been parachuted in from Whitchurch, still in the county but a good hours drive away.  I will be voting for – and actively supporting – the UKIP candidate, Councillor Denis Allen who has lived in Telford for years, has been a councillor in Telford for years, has served as Mayor of Wellington in Telford and is currently Deputy Mayor of Telford & Wrekin Borough.

I have a great deal of respect for David Wright for being an early adopter of Twitter amongst MPs and the fact that despite a mutual loathing he still talks to me on Twitter, even if trying to get him to answer a question is like trying to nail jelly to the wall.  But he really doesn’t help himself with his failure to understand what is and isn’t an acceptable thing to say and do as an MP.  Every day he tweets he says something inappropriate and people have warned him about his tweeting activities but he plods on regardless writing gaffe after gaffe and inevitably has attracted the attentions of the rabid Tory Twitterati and bloggers, some of whom have regular slots on national news channels and columns in newspapers, who will doubtless hound him until he resigns or something more exciting comes along.

David will be desperate for a proper politician to do something daft in the next day or two to take the heat off him, let’s hope they’re all on their best behaviour at least until the end of the week!

Cross-posted: Wonko's World