Duties of a MP

Sir,

Archie Harper’s defence of Angus MacNeil’s ‘hard work’ once again stretches belief.

He appears to be unaware that an MP – regardless of whether they stand under the banner of Labour, Lib Dem, Tory or SNP – still has a crucial role within the community he or she represents.

This includes the following tasks and basic civilities: visiting and consulting the council within their constituency frequently - whether they are always in agreement with him or not; meeting the largest employers within the area on a regular basis; being an ambassador for the community, especially in terms of creating trade fairs and other events in both London and elsewhere to encourage investment, employment and visitors to come to these islands; speaking and reaching out to people – especially when they have radically different opinions to their own rather than mocking the very notion of standing ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with them.

All this is needed much more in an area like the Western Isles where jobs and employment are far rarer and more precarious than they are in prosperous constituencies like Orkney and Shetland. It is certainly of much more importance than ‘twittering’ and asking needless questions in the House of Commons.

Finally, Mr Harper points out that I have used a Lib Dem MP as my model for this approach. What he fails to even notice is that I could have employed the example of any proper hard-working Parliamentary representative, regardless of the party they represent, whether they were Labour, Lib Dem, Tory or SNP. I simply chose one who represented another group of islands, similar in some ways to the Western Isles, as an illustration of how a normal, responsible MP behaves.

Such an approach is beyond politics. It is basic professionalism, recognition of the fact that an MP is accountable to all – and not just some of – the people he is paid to represent. The limits of his duty do not lie within the walls of the House of Commons. What goes on outside Westminster is far more important to people’s lives.

The tragedy for the Western Isles is that Archie Harper and a minority of those who echo his views do not even begin to recognise this fact.

Donald S Murray

Seasgair

Casho

Quarff

Shetland

Letter: Duties of a MP

6 May 2015