Meeting the MP

I was slightly surprised today to bump into our MP (Andrew Lansley, Conservative) at the Farmers’ Fayre (like a Farmers’ Market but not so strict about only farmers taking part) in Great Shelford this morning. Various smartly dressed men of a range of ages – and the MP, of course – with stickers, flags and balloons so that we’ll all vote for him on May 5th. Being the person I am, I decided to take the chance to ask about one of the big election issues: immigration. I was slightly disappointed to discover that he wouldn’t be drawn on his personal opinions – although I appreciate that a member of the shadow cabinet (as he is) will follow the party line, I prefer to know something about the personal opinions, too! It lets us know what sort of debate might be going on to form that party line. I was, however, particularly concerned that he failed to distinguish between immigration and asylum (very different things), or between immigration quotas and immigration qualifications (also rather different). I have sent him an email on these issues, and I’ll let you know when (and if) he replies.

For balance, the other main candidates in our constituency are Andrew Dickson (LibDems) and Sandra Wilson (Labour). There are probably others, too :-) And I’ll be checking issues with them, too, if I can!

pax et bonum

Article posted at 7:32pm on 23 April 2005
Category: Life, Politics, Struggling, General

two trackbacks

Immigration matters
After my post at the weekend about my MP’s apparent failure to distinguish between asylum and immigration, I thought that I would write a little about the important distinctions between these groups. Immigrants come to this country with the int…
Sent on 11:51am on 06 May 2005 , via / musing / struggling / dreaming /

Hearing from the MP
Further to my recent post about meeting my MP and talking about immigration, I’ve just had an email from his secretary saying that he is going to reply if I send my postal address. So, I’ve sent that to him. Sounds promising :-) pax et…
Sent on 11:25am on 29 April 2005 , via / musing / struggling / dreaming /