The Eastbourne Herald is reporting that Eastbourne MP Stephen Lloyd has resigned as PPS to Ed Davey over the £75m proposed for investment in the A27 in the Autumn statement.
Stephen is quoted
After all the work and cross-community effort by so many local residents and businesses in Eastbourne and Willingdon, I am profoundly disappointed by the proposal put forward by the Department of Transport. Instead, there is a vague promise for some time in the future. This isn’t jam tomorrow, but more like the possibility of jam sometime, if we’re lucky, in a few years.
…
He said, “Ever since I was first elected in 2010 as MP I’ve always been clear I would put our town first, irrespective of party politics. In this instance I feel we have been ignored and I’m not prepared to quietly accept the transport department’s decision.
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15 Comments
A seemingly niche issue to resign over but I guess that may well be the sign of a good constituency MP, putting the issues that affect local residents first. Well done!
Sign of a desperate constituency MP, perhaps?
‘Sign of a desperate constituency MP, perhaps?’
I don’t think so …
Ashcroft Poll (September):
Lib Dem: 46% (-1%)
Conservative: 25% (-16%)
UKIP: 18% (+15%)
Labour: 7% (+2%)
Green: 2% (n/a)
Other: 2% (-3%)
Good to know where the red lines are. To the barricades!
“Ever since I was first elected in ……..as MP I’ve always been clear I would put our town first. In this instance I feel we have been ignored and I’m not prepared to quietly accept ……”
I suggest these words (with appropriate date and example of being ignored imserted in the spaces provided) are used by all MPs holding any sort of office in this government.
They can then spend their time over the next three months on something more useful than propping up the collapsing ruins of Cameron’s Conservative Coalition
As someone familiar with the A27, I sympathise with Stephen’s anger. It is not so much the road itself, but attempting to cross it and turn right into it that scares the living daylights out of people. The Highway of Terrors runs from Beddingham through to Polegate, and is as much a nightmare for Norman Baker’s constituents as it is for Stephen’s. A friend of mine got thoroughly lost on it during the summer attempting to find Lewes County Court, and was late, so poor and misleading is the signposting. One might have though that those members of the elite menaced by the A27 on their way to and from Glyndebourne Opera would have ensured that the funding was made available, but evidently not.
This article begs the question of why he didn’t resign over something as vital as the abolition of judicial review.
@Tsar Nicolas
‘as vital as the abolition of judicial review.’
This reminds me of a quotation from Isaac Butt MP referring to a small rural town in Ireland and some important political issue. In xxx they talk of little else.
I wonder how many of the cynics who criticise Stephen’s motives have ever won a Parliamentary seat. Stephen worked hard for years to secure Eastbourne. he did it by representing his constituency and keeping his promises.
He is doing his job and the cynics should be ashamed!
Sesenco
Now you mention it our chauffeur was mumbling something when we were on our way home from ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’ earlier this year.
But you know what it is like after Mozart and a few bottles of House of Lords Champagne, it is difficult to be completely on the ball.
We never really listen to the chauffeur anyway, not since he started banging on about how the M27 is so slow because it is full of immigrants. He probably votes for Mr Garage.
Ian Sanderson (RM3) 13th Dec ’14 – 9:09am
@Tsar Nicolas
“‘as vital as the abolition of judicial review.’
This reminds me of a quotation from Isaac Butt MP referring to a small rural town in Ireland and some important political issue. In xxx they talk of little else.”
It wasn’t the Schleswig Holstein question, was it?
Stephen also voted against the tuition fees policy-showing him to be a man of principal….and as a constituency MP he is there to represent the voice of his constituents-most of whome will be primarily voting on local matters..
David Thorpe
Thank you for that information on Stephen voting against the tuition fees rise. Let’s hope that now he is free from the constraints of office, he will vote against the judicial review abolition.
Tsar Nicholas
The Schleswig-Holstein question . You are thinking of the quote from Palmerston – so quite different from the quote from Isaac Butt MP.
The Palmerston quote could be adapted for the failed strategy to attract millions of ‘Soft Con’ votes to DOUBLE the number of Liberal Democrat MPs at the 2015 election.
“The Soft Con Strategy is so perplexing, only three men in The Liberal Democrats ever understood it. One was a Special Advisor who is long since gone. One was a South African professor who became mad. Clegg was the third and he has forgotten all about it.”
I suppose there’s a certain irony in resigning from the Climate Change department because we are not building enough roads…