The saddest part is it’s allowed the people who did this to fundamentally change our democracy.
Removes the best argument in favor of FPTP if people are no longer able to actually meet their MPs
Recently we had a news piece about our MP talking over a (to my mind) surprising issue. Little photo op of her with about 15 or so constituents, I assume.
No one had any clue it had happened, no one apart from these select individuals were invited. People were a tad miffed. It’s probably become a tad more clandestine given the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess.
[In fact on IPSA](https://www.theipsa.org.uk/other-payment-data), you can see the sort of trend around £80,000 in 2014 and earlier, jumping to £4.3m by 2021 purely for “security assistance spending”
It seems strange to me that the article didn’t even mention the trial that’s currently going on.
Well this feels very much like letting the terrorists win.
… Because that’s exactly what’s happened. They’ve successfully changed an element of our political system.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen my MP, not by choice, doing a surgery in like 12 years. He is MP for Darwen and Rossendale but lives in Wales.
He only comes to Darwen for photo ops.
Seen my MP once in like 20 years. Even then the one time in my area people have seen her, she was flanked by 3 police officers.
So this isnt going to make any difference anyway.
As much as I dislike my MP (Chope), I would rather he was just voted out of office and fade into political obscurity. The amount of visceral hatred some people feel for their MPs is worrying, especially as social media has become important in politics and is leading to extremism in some cases. Threatening violence does nothing but lead to further violence and an erosion of democracy.
Most MPs are despised by the people. Rightly so as well in my opinion.
MPs will be delighted. Even less work to do and less accountability.
Would this be the MP’s that frown and nod and act sympathetic and then vote how the whip tells them to anyway?
Not much of a change then really.
Maybe replace MPs with a computer that makes decisions for the benefit of majority.
Probably work out for the best, certainly cheaper
Well to be fair there was a substantial risk of tory MPs having to actually do some work that they don’t get a fat “consultancy fee” for and interact with the filthy plebs while hiding their utter contempt for anyone who owns less than three houses, for whole minutes at a time.
If I can not see my MP, then how would I be represented? And if I am not (fully) represented, then why should i pay tax?
No taxation without representation! I may have heard that phrase before somewhere, i just cant place it 😉
But seriously, if MP’s want their money, they should have to see their constituants and explain what they have done, and any targets they were expected to reach, and we would decide if they are paid.
Also, MP’s are responsible for the state of society. They are the ones who decide what funding is available, and what education or social benefits there are. If they are now too afraid to meet with people, then THEY are the ones ho are responsible.
If they didn’t openly commit crime while the police look the other way, then maybe there would be less ‘substantial risk’
Lol, I actually have my MPs number and address, dude is always willing to make time to listen if he has it.
My MP is regularly just chilling in our local shopping centre with a little table having a chat to people. I disagree with his party’s politics but he seems like a really guy who’s genuinely trying his best to make the world (or his little bit of the world) a better place.
our local MP sits in Tesco. Nobody goes to see him.
Never seen the guy, he spends all his time hoovering up coke in London.
So we just cave to terrorists instead of hiring security?
Yes, what happened is unforgivable. But this sounds like such a cop out to just move to a digital only system and to not have to properly interact with the public anymore. Like a convenient way to excuse a core duty in the job.
Can MP’s start to vote digitally? We don’t need that fancy big building in London any more.
The last time there was an attack on an MP, my MP released a defiant statement ensuring her constituents that she would continue to meet them. She’s continued to meet her constituents face-to-face, is regularly seen participating in the local community and lives amongst her people when not working in Parliament. Not all MPs are hiding from the people they are supposed to be representing.
I don’t even know if my colossal miserable goit of a MP even does public sessions. I suspect he doesn’t because he always looks like he has disdain for the town he represents. Every single picture looks like he hates being here and he isn’t known for doing things
​
That and if MPs get to avoid speaking to their voters, actually doing their jobs, they’ll do it. One MP took the piss via claiming parking on expenses after visiting a foodbank for a photo-op.
Days of seeing your GP ‘over’ due to ‘substantial risk’.
A GP has around about the same number of patients as an MP has constituents. A GP runs the risk of death with every single person who walks through the door. Nothing malicious. That is just the way that disease works. The reality is that GPs are the barometer of what is risky that people should be referring to not the self-serving cant dished out via press release by career politicians who are increasingly aware that their role is to make life nastier, shorter, and more bruitish for their Constituents.
They should be fixing the problems that cause the danger not locking themselves away from it. You can be absolutely sure that nobody else will be protected – given the lack of police and the lack of social safety nets we now have. The ‘substantial risk’ to MPs is simply the bleeding through of the ‘overwhelming risks’ to Constituents. And it worries them.
So the terrorists win…..Lets be honest about it…..the terrorists win.
Even in Afghanistan policians had to meet with local people but in the UK the police are too useless and well I’ll say it again….the terrorists have won.
Meetings on zoom instead?
Police presence at meetings?
There’s got to be a solution here which doesn’t put an MPs life at risk
Not really.
The UK have now learnt how to successfully work from home.
This isn’t a reason for MPs not to hold surgeries (they all HATE them btw), we can hold more Surgeries online, accessible to more people, and not being confined to a small smelly town hall.
Let’s face it, it would only be the select few who would waste an evening going to one of these.
I’m sure they’ll still be on the doorsteps and outside school gates in the run up to elections.
If this is accurate then I think you’d have to chalk these attacks as unequivocally successful attacks on democracy.
Being unable to meet with our representatives starts to chip away at their accountability and frankly, their already flimsy grip on reality.
Ha! My Local MP has been pioneering this for years. Never turns up to hustings, blocks anyone who asks questions on socials, never responds to emails or letters.
Been voted in for decades he even, fucking get this, he even voted against Gay Marriage because he FELT that the Christian Heterosexual voice in my area was underrepresented and going unheard.
The ones whose rights were utterly unaffected but still objected on the ground of it being an insult to the magic sky man who was cool with doing murders ALL the time, or sacrifices
Fucking maddening.
They were over decades ago if you had a job or lived in a city…
Thats a lie, I saw Kwasi leaving a local brewery in Staines half cut a few weeks ago.
The means have not become more prevalent, so if there is increased risk in MPs meeting their constituents it must stem from a burgeoning motive to inflict violence upon them: something, however unjustifiable, with which MPs should concern themselves, not shy away from.
33 comments
The saddest part is it’s allowed the people who did this to fundamentally change our democracy.
Removes the best argument in favor of FPTP if people are no longer able to actually meet their MPs
Recently we had a news piece about our MP talking over a (to my mind) surprising issue. Little photo op of her with about 15 or so constituents, I assume.
No one had any clue it had happened, no one apart from these select individuals were invited. People were a tad miffed. It’s probably become a tad more clandestine given the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess.
[In fact on IPSA](https://www.theipsa.org.uk/other-payment-data), you can see the sort of trend around £80,000 in 2014 and earlier, jumping to £4.3m by 2021 purely for “security assistance spending”
It seems strange to me that the article didn’t even mention the trial that’s currently going on.
Well this feels very much like letting the terrorists win.
… Because that’s exactly what’s happened. They’ve successfully changed an element of our political system.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen my MP, not by choice, doing a surgery in like 12 years. He is MP for Darwen and Rossendale but lives in Wales.
He only comes to Darwen for photo ops.
Seen my MP once in like 20 years. Even then the one time in my area people have seen her, she was flanked by 3 police officers.
So this isnt going to make any difference anyway.
As much as I dislike my MP (Chope), I would rather he was just voted out of office and fade into political obscurity. The amount of visceral hatred some people feel for their MPs is worrying, especially as social media has become important in politics and is leading to extremism in some cases. Threatening violence does nothing but lead to further violence and an erosion of democracy.
Most MPs are despised by the people. Rightly so as well in my opinion.
MPs will be delighted. Even less work to do and less accountability.
Would this be the MP’s that frown and nod and act sympathetic and then vote how the whip tells them to anyway?
Not much of a change then really.
Maybe replace MPs with a computer that makes decisions for the benefit of majority.
Probably work out for the best, certainly cheaper
Well to be fair there was a substantial risk of tory MPs having to actually do some work that they don’t get a fat “consultancy fee” for and interact with the filthy plebs while hiding their utter contempt for anyone who owns less than three houses, for whole minutes at a time.
If I can not see my MP, then how would I be represented? And if I am not (fully) represented, then why should i pay tax?
No taxation without representation! I may have heard that phrase before somewhere, i just cant place it 😉
But seriously, if MP’s want their money, they should have to see their constituants and explain what they have done, and any targets they were expected to reach, and we would decide if they are paid.
Also, MP’s are responsible for the state of society. They are the ones who decide what funding is available, and what education or social benefits there are. If they are now too afraid to meet with people, then THEY are the ones ho are responsible.
If they didn’t openly commit crime while the police look the other way, then maybe there would be less ‘substantial risk’
Lol, I actually have my MPs number and address, dude is always willing to make time to listen if he has it.
My MP is regularly just chilling in our local shopping centre with a little table having a chat to people. I disagree with his party’s politics but he seems like a really guy who’s genuinely trying his best to make the world (or his little bit of the world) a better place.
our local MP sits in Tesco. Nobody goes to see him.
Never seen the guy, he spends all his time hoovering up coke in London.
So we just cave to terrorists instead of hiring security?
Yes, what happened is unforgivable. But this sounds like such a cop out to just move to a digital only system and to not have to properly interact with the public anymore. Like a convenient way to excuse a core duty in the job.
Can MP’s start to vote digitally? We don’t need that fancy big building in London any more.
The last time there was an attack on an MP, my MP released a defiant statement ensuring her constituents that she would continue to meet them. She’s continued to meet her constituents face-to-face, is regularly seen participating in the local community and lives amongst her people when not working in Parliament. Not all MPs are hiding from the people they are supposed to be representing.
I don’t even know if my colossal miserable goit of a MP even does public sessions. I suspect he doesn’t because he always looks like he has disdain for the town he represents. Every single picture looks like he hates being here and he isn’t known for doing things
​
That and if MPs get to avoid speaking to their voters, actually doing their jobs, they’ll do it. One MP took the piss via claiming parking on expenses after visiting a foodbank for a photo-op.
Days of seeing your GP ‘over’ due to ‘substantial risk’.
A GP has around about the same number of patients as an MP has constituents. A GP runs the risk of death with every single person who walks through the door. Nothing malicious. That is just the way that disease works. The reality is that GPs are the barometer of what is risky that people should be referring to not the self-serving cant dished out via press release by career politicians who are increasingly aware that their role is to make life nastier, shorter, and more bruitish for their Constituents.
They should be fixing the problems that cause the danger not locking themselves away from it. You can be absolutely sure that nobody else will be protected – given the lack of police and the lack of social safety nets we now have. The ‘substantial risk’ to MPs is simply the bleeding through of the ‘overwhelming risks’ to Constituents. And it worries them.
So the terrorists win…..Lets be honest about it…..the terrorists win.
Even in Afghanistan policians had to meet with local people but in the UK the police are too useless and well I’ll say it again….the terrorists have won.
Meetings on zoom instead?
Police presence at meetings?
There’s got to be a solution here which doesn’t put an MPs life at risk
Not really.
The UK have now learnt how to successfully work from home.
This isn’t a reason for MPs not to hold surgeries (they all HATE them btw), we can hold more Surgeries online, accessible to more people, and not being confined to a small smelly town hall.
Let’s face it, it would only be the select few who would waste an evening going to one of these.
I’m sure they’ll still be on the doorsteps and outside school gates in the run up to elections.
If this is accurate then I think you’d have to chalk these attacks as unequivocally successful attacks on democracy.
Being unable to meet with our representatives starts to chip away at their accountability and frankly, their already flimsy grip on reality.
Ha! My Local MP has been pioneering this for years. Never turns up to hustings, blocks anyone who asks questions on socials, never responds to emails or letters.
Been voted in for decades he even, fucking get this, he even voted against Gay Marriage because he FELT that the Christian Heterosexual voice in my area was underrepresented and going unheard.
The ones whose rights were utterly unaffected but still objected on the ground of it being an insult to the magic sky man who was cool with doing murders ALL the time, or sacrifices
Fucking maddening.
They were over decades ago if you had a job or lived in a city…
Thats a lie, I saw Kwasi leaving a local brewery in Staines half cut a few weeks ago.
The means have not become more prevalent, so if there is increased risk in MPs meeting their constituents it must stem from a burgeoning motive to inflict violence upon them: something, however unjustifiable, with which MPs should concern themselves, not shy away from.