Sir Malcolm Rifkind's detachment from local life (Kensington and Chelsea Liberal Democrats)

Kensington and Chelsea Liberal Democrats <info@kensingtonandchelsealibdems.org.uk>

Sir Malcolm Rifkind's detachment from local life

October 22, 2009 5:52 PM
By Robin Meltzer, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Kensington in letter to Kensington & Chelsea News

Robin Meltzer campaigning in Kensington

I wonder how many other readers spotted the delicious irony in Sir Malcolm Rifkind's column in your paper last week when he wrote, proudly: "It is vital that the link between people and their representatives be strengthened and restored."

Perhaps Sir Malcolm would care to use his next column to elaborate on quite how he does that in Kensington & Chelsea? No-one I have spoken to can tell me. There is a tradition in the UK of holding advice surgeries so that local people can ask for help. Sir Malcolm's website shows no surgery times. When are people supposed to drop by for advice? A constituent of his wrote to me recently to tell me that when she asked when Sir Malcolm's surgeries were so that she could meet her MP, not only was she not told, but in fact she received only an automated response back saying "Thank you for contacting me." Thank you, indeed.

This is particularly important for the residents of North Kensington, because for the first time, Sir Malcolm will be asking them to vote for him in the next General Election. He is standing for the new constituency of Kensington which stretches from Earls Court right the way up to the Harrow Road. Karen Buck, the current Labour MP for North Kensington, is not standing for the new constituency, preferring instead to fight Westminster North. The people of North Kensington deserve an MP after the next General Election who will meet with them, listen to their concerns and act on their behalf.

If I were fortunate enough to be elected, I pledge to hold regular surgeries - at the very least monthly - in both North and South Kensington. Will Sir Malcolm make the same pledge?

Yours sincerely,

Robin Meltzer

Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Kensington