Freshmen MPs vulnerable to Foot-In-Mouth Disease

Funny how an outside candidate keen to make himself accessible now, as an elected official, wants to cut off access.

Over the last month Dominic Raab, the Conservative representing Esher and Walton in the House of Commons, has called on a political advocacy blog to pull his e-mail address from their Web site. Raab has told media outlets that his office is being flooded with e-mails from across Britain and that they're unable to handle the volume of correspondence.

The blog in question, 38degrees, bills itself on enabling concerned citizens to sign petitions and pursue group action on various issues, ranging from recalling MPs who may have misused their position to local planning issues including proposed CAFOs and housing developments. For the past month, 38degrees' operators and Raab have exchanged e-mails concerning Raab's request and made those e-mails public.

Raab has taken offence to his inbox being flooded with hundreds of e-mails from concerned citizens across the length and breadth of Britain sending the same form letter advocating for the adoption of the Alternative Vote, the referendum which is slated to occur in May 2011. In the e-mail exchange with 38degrees, Raab has noted that he would welcome responding to individual e-mails from advocates of AV. Both Raab and 38degrees say they have advice from Parliament's Information Commissioner backing their stand on Raab's request.

Now, on the surface, this request appears idiotic. Raab is a public figure now. His e-mails, if they're conducted from a government e-mail account, are subject to opens records laws. (That said, Raab listed a Yahoo! e-mail address on his candidate profile, and if he is still using that Yahoo! account for government business, then that's a slightly different issue here.) And Raab asking people to stop e-mailing him, be it to his Yahoo! or Commons e-mail address, is like asking the Niagara River to stop flowing over Horseshoe Falls.

What his office can do, like what several reps here in Missouri do, is set up a generic auto-reply that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail and explicitly state on there that unless the issue is raised by a resident in his constituency (as verified by post codes) there's a good chance the e-mail won't be replied to or actually be seen by the MP. If an e-mail did not include a post code or did not match those that reside in the constituency (in Raab's situation those would be KT10, KT11 and KT12), then the office staff could label it as low priority. This would be to ensure that the highest priority emails—from constituents and media—would be given top priority.

What concerns me about 38degrees, and what may be distressing Raab, is whether the e-mails he's receiving via 38degrees' mailing system (which is modelled on progressive grassroots sites like MoveOn.org) is mailing the same form letter to all 650 MPs, regardless of the petitioner's given constituency. While it is useful to generate large numbers as to show national opinion on certain issues, an MP's priority must be his/her constituency. If the MP is to be a delegate representing the wishes of his/her residents (as opposed to a trustee), then he/she must be able to discern the voices of his/her neighbours over those of adamant campaigners.

While Web sites like 38degrees, MoveOn.org, (and even Missives from Missouri, to a lesser extent) allow regular citizens to become aware and actively involved in issues affecting their lives, citizens need to be able to think and form opinions for themselves, rather than just fill in a few boxes and go back to watching EastEnders or iCarly. Rather than remaining a sheep under the stewardship of a new shepherd, a truly active citizen needs to be able to articulate their view and personal experiences relating to such issues. Only then will the power of new media reach its optimum.

Off-mic may not be the best time to Give 'Em Hell

During his whistlestop speech in Harrisburg, Illinois, one of Harry Truman's supporters shouted to him "Give 'Em Hell, Harry!", to which he replied: "I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell." At least Truman had the courage to do so in their face and not from the comfort of a limo driving away before disconnecting his hot microphone.

As a result, this will be the picture (via the BBC) that will perhaps symbolise the practical end of Gordon Brown's political career: (barring a dramatic turn of events that would easily eclipse Truman '48)

This photo is of Brown listening to a replay of his comments on BBC Radio 2's noon news programme hosted by Jeremy Vine. During his visit, Brown expressed great remorse for his comments and later apologised to the woman he accused of being "bigoted".

As has been reported on both sides of the pond (because American media love to jump on quips like this, thank you very much TMZ), Gordon Brown was meeting residents in Rochdale, a town just north of Manchester, when he received a question from Gillian Duffy, a 65-year-old woman who (until recently) was a lifelong supporter of Labour. Duffy, who said she was only out to buy some bread, is now being seen as the catalyst of what could be the final nail in the coffin of Labour's chances of winning the election.

Her question? Immigration, specifically concerning the influx of people from Eastern Europe. Many of those nations are in the EU, meaning persons from Poland, the Baltic States, Romania, and others can relocate to the UK in almost the same manner someone can move from West Virginia to Iowa. While Brown attempted to point the finger at the media and staffers for not giving Brown the chance to answer the question, he didn't seem interested to answer it on that Radio 2 clip either. (And given what's going down in Arizona, with the prospect of it happening in other states soon, this question really needed answered.)

The gaffe (and now worst-yet breakout of Foot-In-Mouth Disease) could overshadow Brown's performance, and perhaps any worthwhile discussion, during this evening's debate in Birmingham on the BBC. (And, it won't be an opportunity for the SNP to waste most of the UK's time, as a judge in Edinburgh denied SNP's request to require the BBC to include them or block the transmission in Scotland, saying that their filing, "lacks the requisite precision and clarity."

On the bright side, it's been five minutes and Russia's still standing.

Avian foot-in-mouth disease outbreak in Scotland wipes out Labour candidate

The Prime Minister had to deviate from his prepared campaign speech Friday to issue a condemnation of the actions of his own party's candidate.

The Scottish Labour Party has yanked Stuart MacLennan from the ballot in Moray, located along its namesake firth in northern Scotland. MacLennan was found to have made various derogatory comments on his Twitter account, calling Speaker John Bercow and opposition party leaders David Cameron and Nick Clegg various names, referring to elderly voters as "coffin dodgers", and bragging about his alcohol consumption while insulting the whisky distilleries in his own constituency. This dismissal only serves to help the current MP for Moray: Angus Robertson, leader of the Scottish National Party's Westminster Delegation.

Gee, it's not a good idea to post crap like that on Twitter when Sky News is following your every word (well, was before your account was deleted!)

Foot-In-Mouth Disease might have claimed a Dovorian first…

And if this MP has his way, it might skip my train station for the sake of marketing.

A missive written by Labour MP Gwyn Prosser of Dover last May has recently sparked the attention of detractors. This comes as Southeastern Trains announced that peak train service on its new Javelin "bullet train" to Dover, Folkestone and Thanet will expand three months ahead of schedule. The expanded service, through Ashford and Medway's Ebbsfield to London's St. Pancras station, will begin on 7 September, and full service will start by year's end.

In May, Prosser wrote that were the Javelin's service "tweaked", it could make the trip from Dover Priory station to St. Pancras in just under an hour. By tweak, Prosser means dump one of the two Folkestone stops so that Dover can claim it's less than an hour away. He calls this a "psychologically important threshold."

Prosser's missive for the Hawkinge Gazette re-surfaced yesterday when Folkestone West Councillor Tim Prater, upon linking to it, tweeted the suggestion as: "Rubbish. Folkestone Central has best bus links, Folkestone West more parking. We need both." And three negative responses from readers have been published.

Back home, Trenton is an hour's drive west of Kirksville. The fastest I drove it down Highway 6, however, was 64 minutes. As far as I'm concerned, it's an hour's drive.

Forget Swine Flu; UK braces for Tory Foot-in-Mouth Disease

While the US debate vigorously the virtues and/or follies of the NHS, and the NHS replace the teenagers they hired to diagnose over the phone cases of Swine Flu, another ailment has swept through the ranks of the Conservative Party.

At first, it claimed London mayor Boris Johnson, who last month called an extra £250,000 for writing a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph "chicken feed". This is on top of his salary as mayor, which is a mere £140,000, and was initially raised amid criticisms that he was receiving it in spite of a directive from David Cameron for Tory front-benchers to dump their second jobs in preparation for the election that has to occur before 3 June 2010.

Now comes a video, filmed by an invited visitor who was protesting the excessive expenses claims of MPs, where shadow Commons leader Alan Duncan stated: "You have to live on rations and are treated like s---." The base salary for a Member of Parliament is £65,000 per year, plus reimbursable expenses.

Naturally, most Conservative front-benchers were quick to distance themselves from Duncan's comments, and Duncan's apology was equally quick. However, his chance of recovering from this strain of foot-in-mouth disease appears grim, as he might have an extended stay in an intensive care unit called a backbench.