One
day to go and I finally get some contact from three of my local candidates, I
had to almost shame them into replying to me though. Late this morning my
frustration boiled over and I sent an email to the five candidates who have
still not replied to me. I told them all how disgusted I was by their silence
and how they had done nothing to earn my vote. Well, surprise, surprise, three
of the candidates replied to my email this afternoon.
I
finally heard from The Green Party candidate, the Liberal Democrat and Labour
candidates; but their answers were not anyway satisfactory.
The
Green Party candidate sent me a short email were he blamed the troubles in the
NHS due to the Conservatives running it down to make it ready to be privatised
and sold off to “shadowy” city bankers. It read like a paranoid rant of a
conspiracy theorist, not the discussion of a politician and he made no
reference to any of his party’s policies. It was a strange and very immature
email, I don’t know how it was supposed to persuade me to vote for him because
he answered none of my questions
The
Liberal Democrat candidate first said he hadn’t replied to me because he
received a lot of emails from lobbying groups and so missed my email. I wasn’t
happy with this, he was telling me he wasn’t well organised. How would he run
an MP’s office if he cannot organise his own emails?
He
emailed the text of an opinion piece he said he wrote for our local newspaper and
which he said would answer my questions (I’ve searched the newspaper’s website
and I can’t find this opinion piece. He didn’t say which edition it was
published in either). Briefly, the opinion piece ran like this; first he warms
NHS staff not to strike. Then he linked the shortage of staff to the rise in
infant mortality rates in the UK. He said it is “not a budget problem,” then he
proceeded to complain about the cost of agency staff in the NHS, implying that
an agency nurse is paid £35 to £40 per hour for a shift in A&E. He blamed
low pay on poor short and long term planning, and said the way forward isn’t
national pay bargaining but local pay levels. He says as a politician “it is my
duty to focus on solving the underlying problems of low pay, which is hurting
both patients and nurses.” Yet he offers no solutions.
This
opinion pieces does not answer any of the questions I raised with him. I felt
very patronised and that he was fobbing me off with something he’d previously
written, he could not be bothered to read my email and answer my questions. Is
this the behaviour of a potential MP?
The
Labour candidate emailed a scanned in copy of a letter that she said had been
posted to me. The letter was scanned in upside-down and dated 5th
June. As of today I have not received this letter.
Her
letter did show that at least she had read my email. The first three-quarters
of the letter was reflecting back to me the points and facts I’d raised in my
email and agreeing with me, blaming the Tories for their policies towards
nursing. It is nice to be agreed with but that wasn’t why I emailed her, I
wanted to know what she would do to support nursing and the NHS. The last
paragraph did contain what she was would do, she will campaign “to ensure a
more secure, better future for our NHS and the nurses who work at the heart of
it,” if she is re-elected.
That
is a nice sentiment but her letter was very low on policies and political
commitment. She said Labour would remove the pay cap on nurses and restore the
bursary for student nurses. But I was hoping to hear more from her, she is our
standing MP. She didn’t tell me what her voting record was and what local
issues she has campaigned on, our local NHS has seen the close of services at our
local hospital and seen walk-in centres closed since 2010.
The
Conservative and Peoples Christian Alliance candidates still remain very quiet
and I haven’t had any reply from either of them.
I do
live in a very safe Labour constituency, is this lack of engagement due to
this, the other candidates do not stand any chance of being elected so that
they are barely campaigning and that the Labour candidate has already got the
vote sown up. Or is this typical now of modern politics, a General Election is
all about electing a Prime Minister and local politics are of no concern.
The
basic MP’s salary is £74,962 (1). An election campaign should be were a
politician works to show that they worth electing as our MP. So far none of
these candidates have shown me they are worth a fraction of that salary, and
tomorrow is the General Election.
I
will vote tomorrow but none of these six candidates have shown me they are worth my
vote.
Drew
Payne
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