More Hustings
Still not me actually participating as a candidate in the hustings process, but I had the pleasure of watching Blaise Baquiche twice more on Thursday evening and Friday morning. This follows on from my first hustings, and this article covers the second Hustings event hosted at Brunel University. If you couldn’t make it and want to view the whole thing, the livestream of the event was made available here. The Candidates The first hustings this week was a fairly chaotic event, with 11 of the 17 candidates present. Nevertheless, the moderator did a great job of ensuring that all candidates got to speak, though I am sure that the audience wished that some of them would pipe down! Notably, neither Labour (Danny Beales) nor Conservatives (Steve Tuckwell) turned up. Personally I see this as contempt for the democratic process, as this was otherwise the most complete hustings event for Uxbridge & South Ruislip, and it felt like a return to Boris Johnson hiding in fridges or himself not bothering to attend hustings events. Notwithstanding these absences, the stage was pretty crowded. The following candidates were present (from left to right, from the audience perspective): Blaise Baquiche, Liberal Democrats Piers Corbyn, Let London Live Lawrence Fox, Reclaim UK Steve Gardner, SDP Ed Gemmel, Climate Sarah Green, Green Kingsley Anti-ULEZ, Independent Richard Hewison, Rejoin EU Rebecca Jane, UKIP Leo Phaure, No ULEZ Leo 77 Joseph, Independent Several of these candidates can, I think fairly, be lumped together for review. So that’s what I will do. 77 Joseph I’m going to get this out of the way early. I liked Joseph, thought he brought a sense of honestly and genuine desire to help. Unfortunately for him, he is a single-issue candidate and freely admitted that he didn’t really have any stances on major issues. Additionally, Joseph’s single issue is highly divisive, a large scale monument to the monarchy. As a committed abolitionist, this definitely didn’t win me over. Joseph, if you read this, please know that you have my respect for what you chose to do, but I think we both know that being an MP isn’t the right place for you. Anti-ULEZ candidates As you can see from the candidate list, two candidates explicitly stated that they were standing primarily to stop ULEZ. As I pointed out in the preamble to my question towards the end of the hustings, ULEZ is a devolved Greater London Authority power, and an MP has no say over whether the ULEZ applies to their constituency. As such, this completely undermines the entire purpose of these candidates running. Incidentally, one of the candidates tacitly admitted to vandalising existing cameras and said that if unable to stop ULEZ through legal means, he would take matters into his own hands. This is absolutely not how society functions. We all have laws that we don’t feel are fair, but that does not give us carte blanche to go out and destroy public property. As an MP, we need someone who understands that the rule of law is all that keeps our country civilised, and fully accepts that they will be limited on the things they can directly change because of how democracy works. In short, these candidates seemed nice enough, but didn’t strike me as MP material. The Conspiracists Given both Piers Corbyn and Lawrence Fox were on stage, I expected more of a trainwreck. Importantly, both of these candidates represent what happens when we let personal prejudices blind us to actual expertise. For Corbyn, he denies anthropogenic (man-caused) climate change and seems to be opposed to vaccines, for Fox, he is rabidly transphobic. As if that wasn’t enough, Fox was also the only candidate who didn’t say that billionaires should be taxed, instead shifting the topic to companies. As before, these candidates turned up with some of their acolytes, so they got applause every time they said something frankly ludicrous, but no-one that went along looking for a serious candidate would have been attracted to either, no matter how charming and charismatic they were. The Pessimist Rebecca Jane of UKIP said something like “I’m not going to win, so I’m here to send a message”. As such, I don’t really see much point in reviewing the other things she said, as it’s very clear that not even she thinks she has an actual chance. The Climatists We had representatives from two climate-focused parties, the Greens and Climate. You might wonder what the difference here is, and I think that’s most easily described with the standard “left/right” economic scale. Greens are left wing, Climate are self-described as centre-right. I have said before that I like listening to Sarah Green, as I think she brings a very well researched and supported statement whenever she talks about issues. We don’t see eye to eye on all issues (e.g. ULEZ), but I hope that she would agree that we both want to achieve positive climate outcomes, we just have a slightly different approach on how to implement the necessary strategies. Ed Gemmel spoke well on a number of issues, and held his own well against heckling from climate deniers. The Democrats The last two candidates are Steve Gardner (SDP) and Blaise Baquiche (Liberal Democrats). Of all the candidates, these were the hardest for me to tell apart, and it is very clear how similar the two parties are (unsurprising given the origins!). In fact, the only major issue that I could look at which would be a point of disagreement is Brexit – the SDP is prominently pro-Brexit, while the Liberal Democrats are anti. Incidentally, borrowing an event from the next morning’s hustings, Steve indicated that his first policy as an MP would be to ask the people what they want and then implement that. This to me is a complete abnegation of the responsibility of an MP to sometimes do things for people’s well-being, not necessarily what they say they want. A classic example here would be taxation. If you asked
Episode 4 – Luca and Mental Wellbeing
The delay to this episode was far more than just slight, but for those of you who have been waiting patiently, here you go! A discussion on mental wellbeing, particularly during this period of cost of living crisis.
Guido Fawkes did a Hit Piece About Me (I didn’t notice for six months)
Over lunch today, my friend and colleague Blaise Baquiche mentioned that Guido Fawkes had done a hit piece on me. This was news to me, so I had to check, and indeed they did. Very exciting – fame at last, or at the very least infamy. Even though this is clearly an utterly inconsequential source, given I didn’t even know it had happened for six months, I thought it was worth responding to some of their specific complaints. Unfortunately, these are fairly rare, if not entirely absent. In fact, considering my political website has, at current count, 15 static pages and 54 blog posts, there is no evidence that the author of the article even ventured off the homepage for the site. A little hint for them – there’s plenty more information “hidden” if you click on the menu and navigate to a subpage. In particular, the “About Ian” page which should give you plenty to comment on regarding my career and hobbies, as well as my disability, which I am certain you will mock given your search for low-hanging fruit. So, onto the points they actually raised. Actual picture of Guido Fawkes (NB – not actually a picture, this is clearly just a joke) Testimonial Sources When I decided to write this website, I decided to ask some people that know me well to provide some testimonies. This includes family, friends, former coworkers, former students and people who I have worked with in my capacity as a candidate. In short, a good blend of people from my entire lifetime. Guido Fawkes makes the complaint that: His website publicises praise from his brother, aunt, jū jūtsu instructor as well as two former co-workers. And perhaps the biggest name of the lot… “Anonymous”. Some Guy My own name is all over this site, and all the testimonials are about me. However, the article criticising me for correctly withholding the name of someone who wished to remain anonymous comes from someone who didn’t even sign their own name to the article they wrote about me. Not sure if the anonymous author has ever heard of GDPR, but there are rules in the UK about what types of data you are allowed to share about someone, and on top of that there are good practices. I suppose I could have simply said that the quote was by J R Hartley or similar, but that would have been dishonest, which would breach one of the three principles that I felt important enough to include in the very header of my site. In short, I liked the quote, so I put it on the site. If you don’t like that, the Back button is right there, you are most welcome to use it. My family know me better than anyone, and I have had major disagreements about politics with many of my family over the years. Despite this, they are happy to endorse me as a political candidate, as are co-workers, friends and people I have worked with on an advocacy basis. At this point, I ought to critique some of the reading comprehension of whoever wrote that article. In the testimonials section, there are two people mentioned as former fellow jū jūtsu instructors, not a single person who taught me jū jūtsu. In fact, both of these were my students, and happened to teach at the same club as me before my disability, hence they were fellow instructors. One of them served on the committee of the Aiuchi Jiu Jitsu Association with me, while the other is someone I have known for over a decade, supported when he applied for UK citizenship and attended his wedding in another country. Again, indicative of how well I know them and they know me. Finally, it is genuinely impossible to work out what sources would be acceptable. After racking my brain, I think the only conclusion would be to approach people I don’t know and ask them for a comment about my personality and suitability for political office. I have simulated what this would look like below: Who the hell are you? Some random passer-by Obsequious Behaviour A comment in passing was that posting these testimonials was sycophantic posting. I think the author is confused, as sycophancy is basically sucking up to someone to try to gain an advantage, e.g. a promotion at work. In this case, comments that I post about myself cannot possibly be sycophantic. It could be argued that it’s self-promotion or some form of arrogance perhaps, but definitely not sycophancy. Now, you can certainly argue that these were an effort by me to help people get to know me and what principles I stand for, and if that was the accusation I would say “guilty as charged”. That is, after all, the entire point of a personal website, and as an aspiring politician I need to get information about me out there. No-one is forcing you or anyone else to read my site. Read if you want to find out more about me, or go somewhere else if you’d prefer to be doing something else. Tax Affairs The author makes the comment that I stated that Nadhim Zahawi should no longer be an MP. I stand by that. The claim was then made that I should look into Ed Davey’s tax affairs. Okie dokie. From what that article says, Ed Davey paid reduced tax on winding up of a company largely owned by his wife. Now, you might argue that this is immoral, you might argue that you want politicians and everyone else to stay clear of those options so that the Exchequer gets more money. That’s fine, but that needs to influence your voting choice, i.e. you need to vote for parties which state that they plan to close those options down. Right now, it’s perfectly legal, therefore criticising someone for paying lower tax rates on winding up a company is akin to claiming that politicians shouldn’t use ISAs to get
Piers’ Propaganda
I thought it would be fun to pull apart the nonsense that is Piers Corbyn’s election flyer. I will of course refer back to my friend and colleague Blaise Baquiche to show how much better his manifesto is than this errant nonsense. Frankly, no it isn’t. It’s a by-election, not a general election for a start, which precludes this from being a referendum on anything. On top of that, this flyer has absolutely no other mention of how the political system should be changed for the better. I for one agree that the system is broken, but my proposed change is to move to a party-list proportional representation system, which would vastly improve the representation of societal viewpoints in parliament. What is Corbyn’s proposal? No idea, just vote for him, apparently. Again, no. Picking one party at random, Sinn Fein – they were elected and therefore have seats in Parliament, but have never once taken those seats. As such, it is fair to say that they had no involvement in the mess we are now in, as all decisions were made without them. Closer to home, the Greens had one MP in this parliament, so without question they had no real influence on “this mess”. In fact, the Conservatives have a majority, and before that Labour had a majority (with a Conservative majority unfortunately made possible by the Lib Dems in 2010), so aside from those parties, it’s fair to say that no other parties in parliament caused any mess. I for one have learned a very valuable lesson from the 2010 coalition, namely never to trust the Tories not to shift the blame onto others, and never trust either Tories or Labour to allow a fair referendum, in this case on the Alternative Vote system, which certainly wasn’t perfect but would have been considerably better than the current trainwreck that is First-Past-The-Post. Can’t see how this could possibly be true when Piers Corbyn is going up against 16 other candidates, including Blaise Baquiche. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Corbyn’s views and behaviour so far make him the least worthy of anyone’s vote. If interested, take a look at my report on the hustings last week for an example of his sort of behaviour. “Best known” is not the best way to determine who is worthy of a vote. If the technology existing to reincarnate Benito Mussolini and he chose to run in Uxbridge & South Ruislip, he would without question be the best known candidate, but for all the wrong reasons. Incidentally, he IS a conspiracy theorist. His views are utter nonsense. I look forward to seeing his submissions in a reputable scientific journal. If I was a betting man and if I could find anyone to take my wager, I would definitely bet on this never happening because it’s far easier to spew nonsense than it is to actually provide rigorous experimental proof of a claim. “Brilliant” isn’t the word I would use. Nor is “Truth” a concept I would equate to this sort of conspiratorial nonsense. The chances of him winning anything are slim to none at best. Incidentally, he uses the phrase “Johnny-come-lately” as a negative, but it is interesting that until the by-election was announced I never saw him campaigning in Uxbridge & South Ruislip. One might be tempted to conclude that he is in fact just another Johnny-come-lately. Conclusion I said in a recent Tweet that I thought Corbyn was a joke candidate, and this flyer definitely doesn’t change my view. The conclusion that I made at the time was that a vote for him would be a waste of a vote, broadly equivalent to not even bothering to go to the polling booth. If that’s what you want, then fine, but don’t forget Count Binface and Howling Laud Hope. If you want real change, then Blaise Baquiche is your candidate. Blaise wants to bring trust and honesty into parliament. He believes firmly in proper representative democracy, and wants to make sure that we have a functioning NHS (including care and dentistry), a fair tax system and education available to anyone that wants to better themselves.
What I Want to Achieve
Some conversations on Twitter recently have me thinking about what I want to achieve as an MP. Realistically, I am unlikely to form part of government in the near future, but that doesn’t mean I can’t achieve things as a backbencher. As such, I thought it would be useful to make a list of the things I want to achieve as a backbencher. Push for a review of student financing, i.e. whether tuition fees are offering value for money and if loans are sufficiently generous in terms of both amount and interest rates. Push for an amended Housing Bill that sets a minimum standard of habitation for rented properties. Insist on an enquiry into the wasted money during the Covid pandemic, and a push to get back money that was transferred to fraudulent or sub-standard providers, either from the companies themselves or from the person who made the introduction. Push for more representation in Parliament of diverse interests. Attempt to influence people to move away from custom and convention as the most important aspect of parliamentary conduct. Vote for laws designed to protect the NHS as a free-at-access service for all people. Ditto education. Clearly there are a lot more things that I would like to achieve, but in reality many of those would rely on being more than just a lone voice in Parliament. As such, I don’t think that I can target those as goals for my time as a backbencher.
ULEZ (ILEZ, WELEZ)
A few responses to Blaise’s recent hustings event have questioned our party’s commitment to clean air by highlighting that we are opposed to the current expansion plans for ULEZ, the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone. I thought it would therefore be really good to review this particular policy and our own stance on the proposed expansion. What is the ULEZ? The Ultra-Low Emissions Zone is a London-wide restriction on polluting vehicles operating within certain areas of the city. Importantly, this isn’t an outright ban, but instead a daily charge for using such a vehicle within the zone of operation. As such, it is often seen as a tax on those who need to use polluting vehicles as part of their job, e.g. most self-employed handymen drive a “white van” which is unlikely to qualify as ULEZ exempt. The goal of ULEZ is to improve air quality within the affected boroughs. I’m going to go out on a limb here and state emphatically that this is a laudable goal and one that we as Liberal Democrats all wholeheartedly support. What Doesn’t Help I’m going to be really blunt here, but comments about how we want kids to die really aren’t helpful at all. For example: Original Tweet Clearly this is utter nonsense, as anyone who even peripherally knows Blaise would immediately conclude. In fact, Blaise supports cleaner air for the whole planet. His chosen day job involves trying to get climate activists in front of wider audiences, and he is one of the most committed environmentalists I know. His and my objections to the ULEZ expansion are not about votes, they are about fairness. In this example, we can employ my usual approach, namely the veil of ignorance. The ULEZ of Ignorance Using this thought process, we can imagine a situation where we have two people, one who relies on their van to make a living and one that doesn’t. We don’t have any information in this problem about probabilities or numbers, we just know that we will be stepping into the shoes of one of these people and we need to design a system that is fair for everyone no matter where we end up. Under the current ULEZ expansion, it is clear that the first person benefits to at least some degree. Less traffic on the road and lower levels of air pollution. Without question, we would be happy to find ourselves in that person’s shoes. The second person is where the proposal falls apart. In this case, our lives are negatively affected in a very significant way. Such an individual doesn’t have a choice as to whether they keep up their job, so this ends up being an additional charge on the business. They will still be driving just as much and polluting just as much, but they will be paying £12 a day for the privilege of working in their existing profession. This may not sound like much, but the figure being bandied around at hustings was an average of £4,500 a year per person working. It is worth taking a step back at this point and thinking about what this would mean. It means that all our plumbers, electricians, builders, handymen, gardeners, carers, delivery drivers, etc, would be hit with a charge for doing their jobs that would not apply to the first person. You could argue that this is fair because the heaviest polluters should pay the most to help clean up everyone’s air, and at first that seems like a decent argument. The problem is that we all benefit from what those people do. In the last year alone, I have had electricians, gardeners, builders and delivery drivers come to my door. Many, possibly even most, of those drove vehicles that would not qualify for a ULEZ exemption because the larger cargo vehicles rarely do. So the question really is this: given person 1 benefits from non-ULEZ compliant vehicles, is it fair that only person 2 pays the price? If you genuinely have no idea which side of this particular argument you will fall on, I genuinely do not see how you could be happy with the idea of putting all the financial burden onto person 2. The thought experiment shows that there would be little impact to that cohort’s usage, but they would be hit with a large bill every year simply for doing the jobs that keep us all going. Wacky Alternatives It’s very easy to criticise someone for a simplistic view that has to be contained in a short sound bite. Hence the nonsense Tweet above that Blaise wants kids to die. Clearly that’s not true, and clearly it is a deliberate ignoring of all the nuance surrounding this particular issue. There has been some sound about how Blaise is opposed to clean air, which is ridiculous. The counter example I gave was that air would be noticeably improved in Hillingdon by banning all cars and vans. Clearly this is utterly unworkable and would lead to misery, so is opposing this wacky suggestion an opposition to clean air? No, obviously. Instead this is an admission that this laudable goal of clean air is not an absolute “we must do this at all costs” goal, but rather a goal that we should always have in mind, but we need to make gradual progress towards it without hamstringing our day to day lives. Real Alternatives Clearly banning all cars and vans is not a workable idea, so what might we do as an alternative? Some ideas: Improved scrappage scheme in terms of value paid for trading in. Improved scrappage scheme in terms of eligibility for the scheme in the first place. More incentives for buying clean vehicles, including EVs and hybrids. More low-cost charging points across London.
My Political Earnings
I thought it would be quite useful to publicly keep track of the earnings that I have made as a political candidate, including a source of any of those earnings. Right now, it’s easy, in that I have not taken any money from anyone for doing what I’m doing. I intend to keep it that way. If elected, I will take a salary and make use of the expenses system for things like hiring staff, but I absolutely will not take donations from outside interests, as that could impact my impartiality when it comes to being an effective representative. This doesn’t include donations to the Hillingdon Liberal Democrats who fund my campaign. Donations to them are ultimately their business, not mine. They have a separately constituted committee responsible for reporting donations and deciding on spending, and although I sit on the executive committee as a candidate, I make sure to abstain from votes on spending on my own campaign. Part of the reason for this stems from the fact that certain high profile MPs have called for a doubling of MP salaries, which would mean that all MPs would be paid some £170,000 a year. To my mind, this isn’t entirely unjustified compared with politicians from other countries, but it ignores a major problem with the political process. In terms of supporting this idea, the aim is to make it entirely unnecessary for MPs to take second jobs during their period in office. I can sympathise with this, as everything is extremely expensive these days (though the fact that the Conservatives are at least partly responsible for the crisis is not lost on me, nor is the absurdity of asking for a 100% pay rise while claiming that a 6% pay rise for the public sector would be too much). This does not address a major problem though. It is fair to say that MPs are quite well looked after in terms of remuneration. The salary is well over the national average, the pension scheme is good, there are relocation and winding up allowances, plus a very generous expenses policy. On the flip side, candidates earn absolutely nothing. My campaign has so far been conducted entirely at my own expense, and that is possible because of a fortunate combination of background and timing for making property purchases and investments. Many people who would make excellent candidates do not have that luxury, they are entirely dependent on their earnings as an employee. As a result, the time as a candidate is one that only people with a certain level of privilege can commit to. How many potential candidates are out there who would do amazing jobs as representatives of the people, but can’t commit to a years-long application and interview process with no guarantee of an income at the end of that period? We are definitely worse off than we would otherwise be as a direct result of this policy. It would make more sense to me to take the proposed increase and put it into a candidate fund which could then provide income of, say, half of the MP salary for 6 months of campaigning for up to 10 candidates (I picked these numbers because 6 lots of 10 comes to 60 months, or 5 years, the usual term for an MP). It’s likely that this wouldn’t fix all the issues of under-representation that we currently see, but it would be a far better use of public funds than giving MPs a pay rise when the ones already in post really don’t need any additional help.
My First Hustings
OK, a slightly misleading title in that this wasn’t my first hustings as a candidate nor was it technically my first hustings as a spectator. In my defence, the last one I attended was for my student union presidency in about 2003, so it’s fair to say that it has been a while. It’s also fair to say that this did not disappoint. You can see the whole proceedings here (as embedding has been disabled, you have to click on the link). Elephant in the Room This hustings events got off to an interesting start, when noted conspiracy theorist, Piers Corbyn, loudly asked why only four candidates were on stage of the seventeen in total. The (rather sensible) answer was that having all candidates on stage would be bedlam, while only having the parties with the four largest predicted vote shares made a sensible compromise between information and time commitment. Sadly this was not the end of the saga, as Corbyn and his acolytes insisted on interrupting loudly and regularly, to the point where the moderator had to say that “this isn’t going to work” and he was threatened with removal if he didn’t let the candidates speak freely. The culmination of this abysmal behaviour was a woman who stood up to screech all sorts of conspiracy theories about vaccines, Kier Starmer and his supposed paedophile ring, chem trails, 5G, etc. Frankly this was an unwelcome addition to an event with limited time, so I and others were very happy to see her ejected by security. After this, Piers Corbyn tried to rabble-rouse further during the candidate Q&A, but everyone was by then completely fed up of his group’s antics and rightly ignored him. Now on to my thoughts on the actual candidates (Piers Corbyn is listed as a candidate, but his behaviour really solidifies the view in my mind that he is a joke candidate, nothing more). Steve Tuckwell My impression of Steve Tuckwell was one of a defeated person trying to make the most of the situation he finds himself in. He was unable to answer the simple question of “Is Boris Johnson a Liar?” with a simple straight answer, and he seemed desperate to conflate this by-election with ULEZ, something over which the local MP has no direct power, only some influence (ULEZ is the purview of the Greater London Assembly and the Mayor of London, not local councils or MPs). More to the point, three of the four candidates on stage for this hustings were opposed to the current ULEZ plans, so I am at a loss as to who he thinks this would be a winning strategy against. Overall, Steve seemed like a nice guy, but one who has been conned into thinking that the Conservatives are the answer. Unfortunately I think his party have put him into place purely to be a scapegoat, in that they know that the seat is lost to them due to Boris Johnson’s behaviour, and they know that whoever they put into the candidacy will bear the brunt of the ill-will that should rightly be directed at Johnson himself. In short, Tuckwell did not come across as a credible candidate with any real ideas beyond “keeping going with Conservative plans” (loosely paraphrased based on his responses to various questions – he didn’t actually state that this was his position). Sarah Green Sarah Green came across to me as very well informed and caring. She generally gave very considered answers to questions put to her by the moderators or audience, and I genuinely got the impression from her that she cared not only about the science but also the people. My concern about Sarah Green is that her party is starting in a distant fourth place, securing only 2% of the vote in 2019. Given my counterpart, Blaise Baquiche, is starting from over 6%, he is the most likely progressive candidate to actually win. Green spoke on the subject of HS2 a few times, including a very interesting figure that a mere 7 weeks of HS2’s budget in 2023 would be enough to close the funding gap for Hillingdon Hospital, sorely in need of renovation. She also mentioned something that I was not previously aware of, namely that Hillingdon is the only London Borough that does not regularly supply data on air quality and water cleanliness to the central data amalgamators, which seems to be a huge oversight by the Council (on which Steve Tuckwell currently sits, incidentally). Danny Beales Of all the candidates, I thought Danny Beales had the most polished speaking skills and stage presence. He held some fairly popular views on Heathrow’s third runway (opposed), ULEZ (opposed in its current form), and fixing Hillingdon hospital (for), but there was little said here that made him stand out from the other candidates. I did ask a question – I believe the final question of the hustings – on what democracy meant to the candidates and how their parties supported democracy in getting them to where they are. This was a bit of a low blow, because I happen to know that Beales does not support Proportional Representation – the only form of election that actually results in true representative democracy – and was placed there by his party after they overruled the democratically elected candidate in Uxbridge & South Ruislip. As such, Beales is only here because his party deliberately decided to ignore representative democracy, which in my view tarnishes any good he might otherwise want to do. Blaise Baquiche Cards on the table, I went to the hustings as a supporter of Blaise Baquiche. Indeed, I was sitting in the front row with his brother and Jonathan Banks, the leader of our local Liberal Democrats. Nevertheless, I was impressed by Blaise in terms of both public speaking skills and stage presence, and thought he did an excellent job of getting his points across. Certainly he managed to get a round of applause from the audience for
David Simmonds Doesn’t Care
Today saw a really important debate and then vote in the House of Commons, namely a debate on how to respond to the privileges committee investigation into Boris Johnson and his serial lies. Here’s why I think that David Simmonds doesn’t care. Why Was This Important? This boils down to a fundamental tenet of democracy, namely that politicians addressing the House must tell the truth, which allows everyone to rationally decide whether to support them or not. Boris Johnson flouted this rule by lying repeatedly and brazenly about all manner of issues. In the end, his own party forced him to resign, but frankly it took them far too long, and members of the Conservative Party like David Simmonds must take some of the blame for allowing this reprobate to continue in a position of power for far longer than he should have. Results of the vote by party. Those who actually bothered to show up, that is. Nevertheless, this was an opportunity for redemption. If David Simmonds had bothered to actually turn up to the debate, had listened to the passionate speeches on both sides of the House, had listened to the testimony of MPs who talked about their constituents who missed loved ones’ funerals because of the rules, he would have heard about the sacrifices that the country made while Johnson was partying and lying about partying to the House. On listening to those speeches, he then could have made an informed choice on whether to support, reject or abstain from the vote. He didn’t. He didn’t even turn up. He didn’t care to listen to the multitude of stories from MPs about constituents of theirs who suffered through Covid. In my view, this is callous uncaring on show. In the end, only seven MPs voted against the proposed measures from the privileges committee. Seven. This was overwhelming in every sense of the word, and it is disgusting that an elected representative from the neighbouring constituency to Uxbridge & South Ruislip would feel it is even remotely appropriate to skip such an important debate and the subsequent vote. I sincerely hope that all residents of Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner write to David Simmonds and tell him that you want him to resign given he has shown that he just doesn’t care about parliamentary integrity. He doesn’t care about what a senior Conservative was up to in the neighbouring constituency. In short, he doesn’t care about you. David Simmonds Doesn’t Care – I Do I am a huge believer in honesty, openness and transparency in politics, and I want to see politicians held to the highest standards of integrity. Seeing someone miss such a vital debate makes me really angry, as it is tantamount to claiming that the person in question – in this case David Simmonds – doesn’t care about integrity at all. To me that’s unacceptable. Hopefully it is to you too. I want to be your next MP. I want to be part of the solution to the increasing problem of mistrust for politicians, and I want to be absolutely above reproach in everything I do on your behalf. I want you to be able to be proud of your MP, and right now I think that’s impossible. Hazeena A – Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner ResidentIan, thank you once again for your support. It means a lot. Thank you so much for [creating this petition] and so amazingly quickly!!! You did a brilliant job on both the blog and petition. Some of the NHS staff were even impressed with the speed at which you addressed this, and I have had varying positive comments from friends who have read your post.Sheena Y, former co-workerHaving worked with Ian I can say that I found him incredibly transparent and honest which I think would be rare and much needed in today political arena. He is also very clever, direct and a great communicator.Andy H, brotherIan is a very smart individual, but more importantly is honest and truly cares about people. He is an unselfish individual and would absolutely have the public’s best interests at heart.Luca M, fellow speakers’ club memberI met Ian a few months ago for the first time and straight away I felt comfortable with him and I thought: “OK I would trust that guy”.Click HereFrancisco V, fellow jū jūtsu instructor and friendThroughout the 12 years I have known Ian, he has always demonstrated to be very bright, kind and upright. I’ve seen all of these attributes in his personal life, for instance, in our sport association he volunteered as treasurer where he improved the overall system and costs as well as championing charitable giving & generous donations. He’ll definitely make a difference in a bigger role in politics.Irene H, motherYou have the moral integrity and high standards in all aspects of the requirements of your potential constituents. You will stand up to injustice and defend those deemed to have had injustice against them. You are committed to environmental change and to look after the less well off in society. Graham C, fellow jū jūtsu instructor and friendFirst and foremost, your personal ethos of kindness and care for others is your top qualification. That you are also highly driven with a need to be productive, and understand very complex matters such as financial systems, makes you stand out. AnonymousYou are one of the most principled people that I know. You are committed to making changes that support the most vulnerable in our society and you don’t give up when you know you’re fighting for what’s right.Helen C, AuntIntegrity. Unlike the rest of us who are disillusioned with the lack of honesty, morals, and the unfair and outdated ‘public schoolboy network’ displayed by this government, you have decided to stand up and make a difference.Miles H, former co-workerHaving known Ian for a number of years during which we worked closely as Financial Advisers, I am confident that he would make an excellent MP. Ian is an intelligent
List of Kangaroos
Today was a momentous day, in that the Committee of Privileges released their findings into Boris Johnson’s conduct during and after the Covid lockdown scandals, otherwise known as Partygate. This resulted in a recommended 90-day suspension from Parliament, which is utterly unprecedented. Had he not stepped down on receiving an advanced copy of this report, he would without doubt have been subject to a recall petition, and without a doubt in my mind he would have been fired by the electorate. Nevertheless, there are a number of supporters of his still spouting utter nonsense about this process and defending his actions. The most common claim from such people is that this is a “kangaroo court”, so I have decided that such people should be referred to as kangaroos in future. A kangaroo in the wild. In the sections below, I want to name and shame the people who have continued defending him after this report was published. Before then, there was an excuse, but now that the findings are public, there isn’t. So I present to you my list of kangaroos. Members of Parliament The following members of parliament have come out in support of Johnson’s lies, and are therefore designated as kangaroos in my mind. This list also includes anyone who has publicly stated that they intent to abstain from the vote supporting the report and its findings: Another kangaroo in the wild. Brendan Clarke-Smith, Conservative MP for Bassetlaw. Andrea Jenkyns, Conservative MP for Morley & Outwood. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for North Somerset. Simon Clarke, Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland. James Duddridge, Conservative MP for Rochford & Southend East. Mark Jenkinson, Conservative MP for Workington. Stewart Jackson, Conservative peer and former MP. Marco Longhi, Conservative MP for Dudley North. Paul Bristow, Conservative MP for Peterborough. Jake Berry, Conservative MP for Rossendale and Darwen. Liz Truss, Conservative MP for South West Norfolk. Michael Fabricant, Conservative MP for Lichfield. Nadine Dorries, Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire. Michael Gove, Conservative MP for Surrey Heath. Peter Cruddas, Conservative peer. Bill Cash, Conservative MP for Stone. Mark Jenkinson, Conservative MP for Workington. Rishi Sunak, PM and Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks). Lia Nici, Conservative MP for Great Grimsby. Nicholas Fletcher, Conservative MP for Don Valley. Joy Morrissey, Conservative MP for Beaconsfield. Karl McCartney, Conservative MP for Lincoln. Adam Holloway, Conservative MP for Gravesham. Heather Wheeler, Conservative MP for South Derbyshire. Those special seven (well, six after the Labour voter who was forced to vote against this proposal by calling for a vote in the first place) who actually voted against this report’s findings: Bill Cash Nick Fletcher Adam Holloway Karl McCartney Joy Morrissey Heather Wheeler Those who couldn’t even bother turning up to the debate: Adam Afriyie, Conservative MP for Windsor. Lucy Allan, Conservative MP for Telford. Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield Stuart Anderson, Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West Stuart Andrew, Conservative MP for Pudsey Caroline Ansell, Conservative MP for Eastbourne Sarah Atherton, Conservative MP for Wrexham Victoria Atkins, Conservative MP for Louth and Horncastle Gareth Bacon, Conservative MP for Orpington Richard Bacon, Conservative MP for South Norfolk Kemi Badenoch, Conservative MP for Saffron Walden Shaun Bailey, Conservative MP for West Bromwich West Siobhan Baillie, Conservative MP for Stroud Steve Barclay, Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire Simon Baynes, Conservative MP for Clwyd South Paul Beresford, Conservative MP for Mole Valley Jake Berry, Conservative MP for Rossendale and Darwen Saqib Bhatti, Conservative MP for Meriden Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East Peter Bone, Conservative MP for Wellingborough Ben Bradley, Conservative MP for Mansfield Suella Braverman, Conservative MP for Fareham Jack Brereton, Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent South Paul Bristow, Conservative MP for Peterborough Sara Britcliffe, Conservative MP for Hyndburn Alex Burghart, Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar Conor Burns, Conservative MP for Bournemouth West Rob Butler, Conservative MP for Aylesbury Alun Cairns, Conservative MP for Vale of Glamorgan East James Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk Miriam Cates, Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge Maria Caulfield, Conservative MP for Lewes Rehman Chishti, Conservative MP for Gillingham and Rainham Christopher Chope, Conservative MP for Christchurch Cleveland Chris Clarkson, Conservative MP for Heywood and Middleton James Cleverly, Conservative MP for Braintree Dr Thérèse Coffey, Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal Damian Collins, Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe Alberto Costa, Conservative MP for South Leicestershire Robert Courts, Conservative MP for Witney Claire Coutinho, Conservative MP for East Surrey Virginia Crosbie, Conservative MP for Ynys Môn Tracey Crouch, Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford James Daly, Conservative MP for Bury North Dr James Davies, Conservative MP for Vale of Clwyd Gareth Davies, Conservative MP for Grantham and Stamford Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley Dehenna Davison, Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland Newquay Caroline Dinenage, Conservative MP for Gosport Sarah Dines, Conservative MP for Derbyshire Dales Leo Docherty, Conservative MP for Aldershot East Michelle Donelan, Conservative MP for Chippenham Green Nadine Dorries, Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire Steve Double, Conservative MP for St Austell and Oliver Dowden, Conservative MP for Hertsmere Richard Drax, Conservative MP for South Dorset James Duddridge, Conservative MP for Rochford and Southend Iain Duncan Smith, Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Mark Eastwood, Conservative MP for Dewsbury Michael Ellis, Conservative MP for Northampton North Natalie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover George Eustice, Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth David Evennett, Conservative MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford Ben Everitt, Conservative MP for Milton Keynes North Michael Fabricant, Conservative MP for Lichfield Anna Firth, Conservative MP for Southend West Green Katherine Fletcher, Conservative MP for South Ribble Sidcup Kevin Foster, Conservative MP for Torbay Dr Liam Fox, Conservative MP for North Somerset Mark Francois, Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford Lucy Frazer, Conservative MP for South East Cambridgeshire Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Louie French, Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Marcus Fysh, Conservative MP for Yeovil Weald Mark Garnier, Conservative MP for Wyre Forest Nusrat Ghani, Conservative MP for Wealden John Glen, Conservative MP for Salisbury