What does Glenda Jackson do?

My eye was caught by the figures put together by Ed Fordham, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Hampstead & Kilburn who is up against Glenda Jackson at the next general election. They are for various MPs in and around this new constituency.

Number of appearances in Hansard since 2005 general election, excluding votes
Lynne Featherstone 2,559
Sarah Teather 2,542
Frank Dobson 2,508
Average MP 1,822
Karen Buck 1,814
Mark Field 981
Rudy Vis 219
Glenda Jackson 40

In other words, Glenda Jackson would have to be an MP for 64 years in order to chalk up as many appearance in Hansard as Lynne Featherstone manages in one year. Yup, if Glenda Jackson had been elected an MP aged 18, she would not have run up the number of appearances in Hansard made by Lynne Featherstone in one year until she herself reached the age of 76.

Doing in a lifetime what someone else does in a year is a stunningly low work rate.

Even just to chalk up the same number of appearances as an average MP gets in during a year, Glenda Jackson would have to be an MP for 45 years.

Crikey.

The Ham & High, which covers both Glenda Jackson and Lynne Featherstone’s constituencies, praises Lynne but is none too impressed with Glenda Jackson.

Glenda Jackson and Lynne Featherstone - Ham & High coverage

The paper’s editorial says,

Voters who were impressed by [Lynne Featherstone’s] energy levels and who enabled her to overturn a large* Labour majority will therefore be glad to learn that she has continued in the same vein … Many people would prefer to see their MPs spending less time in the rarefied atmosphere of the Commons and more time doing the donkey work in their constituencies. It seems Ms Featherstone does both, while Ms Jackson does neither.

* Personally, I prefer Dod’s description of it pre-2005: “probably impregnable” 🙂

Read more by or more about , , , or .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

One Comment

One Trackback

  • By The LDV Friday Five (ish): 11 December 2009 on Fri 11th December 2009 at 5:58 pm.

    […] digging in for victory (6) by Stephen Tall 2. What makes a ‘good’ MP? (5) by Keith Halstead 3. What does Glenda Jackson do? (1) by Mark Pack 4. Book review: British Electoral Facts (1) by Mark Pack 5. Spelman drops […]

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert



Recent Comments

  • Roland
    Perhaps there isn't a problem with the planning system. A downturn in planning applications could mean developers are no longer making speculative applications ...
  • Nigel Jones
    Change in our area has been needed for over a decade. When on our local cabinet I tried to get progress on a proposal for all district councils to share legal a...
  • Chris Moore
    @Craig Levene: the commentators were wrong. There was a 2% difference in the popular vote. Themes that appeal to some university educated "progressives" - r...
  • Craig Levene
    @Andrew M . What they abandoned Andrew was common sense . Failing to act quickly enough on the border crossings hurt them badly . Ignoring concerns on things li...
  • Zachary Adam Barker
    "Who can be a winner or loser in wars today?" Ask Ukraine....