Writing to My MP Again

If, like me, you were happy to wake up and find out who won, then you would have missed the declaration of the result for Reading East. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can relive that moment as many times as you like:

From what little I know of Annaliese Dodds, I agree with Mr Wilson's commendation of her.

Today, I hand-wrote to Mr Wilson, although I typed it first to make sure I didn't get half way through a sentence only to discover it was a grammatical disaster!!

I would have written to whoever won, in the name of good British sportsmanship, to congratulate them. Here's an extract:

I’m not entirely sure what I make of all the wheeling, dealing and policy churning currently going on in Westminster, suffice to say I do believe the best candidate in Reading East won and I’m pleased you’ll be representing us to the rest of the nation.

May I also take this opportunity (as a Christian) to commend you both for your voting record and for coming out clean in all of the expenses scandals of the last twelve months. Those two things more than any others say what a billion words of campaign rhetoric never could, and bear testimony to me of your trustworthiness for the task ahead.

The more I think about it, the more I think it's about personality not policy, and when I say personality, I don't mean who is the most charismatic leader, I mean who has the greatest integrity. So long as I trust them to do what's right, I'll submit to their lead, whatever their political colour or policy statement.

If the system is full of people of integrity, then the policy will work itself out more or less right. If however, there is no integrity, then we're headed for trouble no matter how well the policy be worded and mediated.