Simon Hughes - Being a constituency MP
March 17, 2010 6:36 PM
Democracy is good and effective when MPs are approachable and always there to deliver top-quality personal responses
Happy fourth birthday Comment is free. I've just done 27 years as a member of parliament for the most exciting part of the most exciting capital city in Europe. Southwark has had members of parliament since 1285, so I never delude myself that any one Southwark MP is anything more than a few pages in the great book of political history.
I represent, or try to represent, about 125,000 people - about 80,000 with votes, the others not able to vote yet, or at all. Families who have lived somewhere near the Old Kent Road for generations with strong ties to the docks and trade unions, Irish Roman Catholics, Bangladeshis, the largest African community in Britain, and growing numbers from Latin America. Probably someone from every country in the world.
It is a seven-day, 80-hour a week job being a constituency MP. Every day by phone, letter, email or simply being stopped in the street, people ask for help. Everything from finance to helping bury a relative to business support for the latest love potion. The largest group need help with housing - repairs, a move or just getting a home at all. (Two-thirds of local properties are council).
We do a huge amount of work on Home Office issues: winning asylum for people like Mehdi Kazemi, the gay Iranian teenager who could have faced execution if sent home; supporting families where the daughter has been a victim of a horrendous sexual attack, not properly dealt with by police or prosecution; a special surgery in a prison in Sheppey where several constituents asked for help.
There are high days and low days: last year celebrating the 110th birthday of Grace Jones, a bright Bermondsey girl all her life; a few years ago mourning with the lovely family of Lee O'Callaghan, killed aged 20 in Iraq.
Joys include going into primary and secondary schools, joining Irish pensioners at their St Patrick's Day party, cheering on Milwall as they storm towards promotion, and raising funds for Tideway Sailability - the only English sailing club exclusively for people with disabilities.
There is always a load to laugh about. Canvassing reveals a large number of people at home with no clothes on - and still clearly happy to answer the door (now you understand the genesis of my campaign for better insulation and lower fuel bills).
Then there was the constituent, convinced she was being poisoned by powder dropped through her ceiling. I visited, sat down - and yawned. "You see!" she said. "They're after you too!"
Practical things matter lots. We won a campaign with more than a million supporters to keep Guy's Hospital open against threats from Labour and Tories; made sure the Jubilee line extension had two extra stations at Southwark and Bermondsey; made sure that the killers of 17-year-old Jamie Robe were brought to justice.
Most encouraging of all are moments that go to the heart of representative democracy. I see my job as being to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in the processes of participation and representation. I was in a queue for a burger at "The Event" in Southwark Park a couple of years ago. Two little boys approached. "You're Simon the MP aren't you?" said one. "Will you help my friend go to the school he wants?" I replied: "I'll try," and having cleared parental permission, two 11-year-olds came to see my caseworker and me to do the appeal for the school they wanted.
Democracy is good and effective when people know who their MP is, feel they can approach them, know what they might be able to do, and are guaranteed a top-quality personal response as far as possible all year round. Elections are the hardest work. But the reward is all the greater when you know how much work in the community can change for good the lives of thousands of people.
Notes
You can read the article and comments on the Guardian website here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/17/simon-hughes-southwark-constituency-mp
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