Gillingham deserves an MP that will perform

1997 was the year that everything changed in my quiet South-East Constituency of Gillingham.

From 1950 until 1983, Frederick Burden of the Conservative Party, then from 1983 until 1997, James Couchman of the Conservative Party, both held the Constituency, and served it well regardless of who ran the Country at the time. Then Paul Clark stole the seat in Labour’s record land-slide victory and everything changed, not necessarily for the better.

Granted, according to TheyWorkForYou.com, Paul Clark has voted in favour of equal gay rights, introducing a smoking ban and Labour’s anti-terrorism laws (which I whole-heartedly support, though 90 days would have been more preferable than just 28). However, he has also voted very strongly for all of the key issues since 2001, except when he voted very strongly against investigating the Iraq war.

Paul Clark is the very model of a Party Politician, who has never rebelled against the Labour Party in this Parliament. He has voted very strongly for the Iraq war, quite strongly for introducing student top-up fees, and very strongly for Labour’s most controversial destruction of Civil Liberties in an ever-increasingly restrictive Nanny State, ID cards.

Paul Clark is not representative of the people whom he represents. After a democratic vote (in which he obtained just 254 votes more than Tim Butcher), he has a moral and political responsibility to serve his Constituents, regardless of whether or not they voted for him in the first place. As Assistant Government Whip in the latter part of Labour’s second term in office, Paul Clark had to vote in favour of his party, rather than use his amazing skills of telepathy to vote how his Constituents would want him to vote. This way, his regular Surgeries may as well have note existed!

I am of course a strong supporter of Conservative A-lister Rehman Chishti. Unfortunately, I had to decline his open request for canvassers this month as I am, after all, a relatively new kid on the block, however I have promised my full support when it comes to campaigning for the local elections in May.

In terms of national politics, I think that it would be great for my quiet Constituency to have one if the Party’s elite standing against our present useless, and quiet MP. Why quiet when he uses every opportunity possible within the local press to massage his overgrown ego? Well, between the 13th July 2005 and 20th June 2006, the sum of his oral Parliamentary contributions amounted to the word “nonsense”, against a fellow Kent MP.

So bring on the next general election, and the prospective challenge Reh Chishti could provide if chosen to contest Gillingham and Rainham (as it will be known then). Maybe then we will once again have an MP who performs, rather than pretends!