A lot of eyes were on the vote on Tuesday night for the Legal Aid, Setentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, dubbed LASPO by those in Westminster.
This was an important vote, not because it impacts everyone in Medway, but because Medway is currently a hotspot for mesothelioma. Not only is their a moral question therefore to the vote but also one which reflects whether our MPs are custodians for the local electorate, or simply concentrating on other issues.
The Lords had tabled several amendments to the bill which would allow mesothelioma sufferers to have greater legal entitlement and less exploitation by unscrupulous 'no-win, no-fee' legal firms who have been raking in huge fees off the back of peoples suffering.
Sadly two of our MPs Rehman Chisthi and Mark Reckless failed to support amendment 30, relating specifically to respiratory disease cases, which the Coalition government won by 292 votes to 256, and the more general vote on industrial disease by 297 to 252.
Medway Labour is absolutely right to be dismayed that two Medway Conservative MPs failed to stand up for vulnerable mesothelioma sufferers across Medway. The asbestos death rate is 6.5 per 100,000 people whereas the national average is 2.5. Between 2006 – 2010 106 people from Medway died of mesothelioma, making it a national hotspot for asbestos deaths. Many people were employed at Chatham Dockyard where asbestos was widely used for ship repairs and building. There was also the British Uralite Factory in Higham, Medway where a number of asbestos-based products such as chimney pots and pipes were made from raw asbestos.
Not only does the Dockyard sit in the constituency of Mark Reckless, whose residents have been leading the calls locally for better representation, but Mark is himself a lawyer who should know full well the implications of the amendments. Once again, we have a serious case of him talking about issues which do not directly impact the constituency, whilst talking 'Westminster' centric issues like a referendum on the EU and the nuances of the ECHR. It is totally out of touch with the reality on the ground; people talking about rampant immigration under his government, an economy stagnating, the omnishambles that is the Conservative administration in Gun Wharf, the performance of local schools and the cuts to our armed forces.
The complete mess that the Conservative Government made over Abu Qatada is alas a Conservative Party mess. The government is, as most voters now know, a clustershambles of Toffs who are simply out of touch. I congratulate Mark for highlighting this 'Olympic-standard screw up' but he has dropped the local ball once again.
Rehman is however a worse offender because at least Mark attended; given hundreds if not thousands of his constituents worked directly at the Chatham Docks, which the Conservative Party closed down in the early 1980s, leaving our towns bereft of blue-collar employment since. He should have been in Parliament at least making an argument either way. I understand he is out of the country at present; but that in itself when Parliament gets a huge holiday entitlement is questionable; I would argue it is not good enough for those in Gillingham & Rainham who did not vote for a part time MP.
Of course there could be personal reasons to absent yourself from the vote, but none of the other Medway MPs made any apologies or cited a reason for his absence, and nor indeed has he done so on any public forum that I am aware of. It is almost a callous disregard for local issues which is becoming symptomatic of an MP who, if boundary changes are to be believed, needs to seriously up his game. I know huge numbers of Tory colleagues cant even bring themselves to mention his name, but there really isnt any excuse for not attending and speaking up for local residents.
It is interesting to see the local Liberal Democrats on this cause as well; there own colleagues in Westminster shamefully, and that is part of the reason why UKIP has now overtaken them as the third party, rejected the amendments as well. Dont let them pretend otherwise
This vote was symbolic of whether our local MPs would stand up for local voters. Two out of three of them are simply out of touch with the community they purport to represent.
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