I’ll be working hard – come and say hello

Thanks to all your readers who supported and voted for me in the general election. I am truly humbled by the thousands who came out to support me and helped make history in this historic constituency of ours.

I am so pleased that my support came from people of every background, young and old, men and women, city, town and village dwellers, people who have voted all their lives and people of every age who voted for the first time, and people of every faith and none. It goes to show that every person’s vote counts and can make a difference.

I am, of course, a new MP and am incredibly busy, not just learning the ropes of parliament, but also setting up my constituency office.

This takes a little time, so please bear with me if you have contacted me and have not had an immediate reply.

My number one political priority now is the NHS and in particular the future of Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

I am devoting most of my time to that and seeking to secure the return of essential acute services to the hospital as soon as possible, and the establishment of a Medical School in Canterbury.

I will be active on behalf of this constituency in seeking the closest possible partnership with the EU, so essential for our local economy and jobs, and fighting for the protection of people’s rights and those regulations which protect and enhance people’s lives and livelihoods.

My goal is to be known as an excellent constituency MP, and I shall be working hard to secure your continuing trust. I am not just here for those who voted for me.

Over the summer I intend to get around as much of the constituency as possible to meet as many of you as possible, so please look out for events, and come and say hello! Rosie Duffield

As the newly elected councillor for Westgate ward, I would like to express my thanks to everyone who voted for me in the by-election on June 8.

It will be an honour and a privilege to serve the ward. It is now my responsibility to represent and work on behalf of all residents, whoever they voted for.

I will work towards making Westgate a better place to live and work.

I will be running regular surgeries for ward residents to meet me and discuss any concerns that they have and will provide details of these surgeries in due course.

I can be contacted at simon.warley@ councillor.canterbury.gov.uk. Simon Warley (Lab)

With the shock result of Rosie Duffield ousting Julian Brazier, mainly because of the student vote, will those students now be asking for another election, as they have done for Brexit?

Or, because it has gone their way, just accept the result of the majority?

Does the University of Kent do a course in hypocrisy? Terry Hudson Russell Drive, Whitstable

I think thanks are in order. First, ironically, to Theresa May for calling the election and giving us the opportunity to change the future of this country, but most wholeheartedly to the students and young people who came out to vote.

I voted tactically, the only way to overcome our first-past-the-post system, but I knew it wasn’t going to be enough without extra help, as amazingly a Conservative has represented Canterbury in parliament for the last 176 years.

We still have the problem of our membership of the European Union to deal with and one lesson I have learnt from the recent election, is that nothing is a ‘done deal’.

We certainly need to have another opportunity here to express our views, when we finally learn what leaving the EU will entail.

Since I returned from living in the USA in 1970, I have sadly seen this country follow the American example of more privatisation and capitalist control.

Perhaps now is the time to reverse this trend and move towards the European system of a more equitable society. Mike Armstrong Queens Avenue, Canterbury

The Prime Minister called the election to ask for a personal mandate for the Brexit negotiations and reinforce that already held by her party. The result greatly diminished her personal position and effectively removed the Brexit mandate from the Conservatives.

The country has not given its endorsement of the Conservative’s manifesto commitment on Brexit. To go ahead as if nothing has changed would be destabilising for our politics, our economy and our international standing. To plough on for ideological reasons would be an affront to common sense. Numerous economic facts and indicators show that the UK economy is slowing. Inflation is rising, house prices are falling, sales on the High Street and of new cars are down and jobs are already relocating to other countries. Leaving the single market and the customs union now would be an act of economic lunacy that would bring hardship to many in our country.

Canterbury voted out a champion of Brexit. Student voting certainly played a part in Sir Julian’s downfall, but it was clear at the count that much of the Remain vote in Canterbury transferred to Labour. When one adds Labour’s local hard core vote to the votes of Remainers, aggrieved NHS and public sector workers, worried pensioners and students looking to a bleak future, it is not surprising that Sir Julian lost. In addition, the local Tory campaign lacked lustre in the same way as the party’s national campaign. Martin Roche Merton Lane, Canterbury

It was most disappointing to read among last week’s letters, those that sought to blame and thereby criticise Canterbury’s student population for unseating Julian Brazier in the general election, ranging from them being bought by false promises from Jeremy Corbyn to only being temporary residents of the city so how dare they.

Students have exercised their democratic right as residents of Canterbury to register their votes in the interests not only of themselves but of their successors and of others in their peer group.

Unlike many of us of more advanced years, they speak for their future but with open minds. They engage with local issues as well as national ones and many attended the hustings where they questioned the candidates on a number of issues of concern.

They did not like the replies from Julian Brazier and on Canterbury’s campuses his words and reports of his attitude spread like wildfire.

The local Conservative Association should take note that the overwhelming rejection of their candidate by the student body was a very personal one.

Well done Rosie Duffield who I am sure will serve all her constituents without fear or favour. She will be a breath of fresh air. Richard Jones St Stephens

If experience is the greatest qualification, then perhaps there was no better candidate for Parliament in June than Sir Julian Brazier. A 30-year Conservative backbench titan only removed by the narrowest of margins.

A frequent charge levelled against him is that he didn’t interfere enough in local disputes. I, for one, cannot condemn a man for simply knowing that his place was in the Commons, and that we elect local councillors for precisely this purpose.

Sir Julian did not fall into that alltoo-common trap of believing that the constituency he represented revolved around him and that his word was gospel.

I wish our newly-elected MP every success – but she would do well to learn from Sir Julian’s example. Thomas Griffiths Chartham