‘We need much better from our MP at this time’

DURING this Covid time, we have all learnt one thing at least: clear, frequent communication from our representatives is essential.

Yet one person seems to be ignoring this lesson - Sir Bill Cash, the MP for Cheadle and Stone.

Sir Bill might as well be invisible as far as local residents matter.

His website has not functioned for a considerable time, his Twitter account has been mysteriously suspended (twice this year), his Facebook is a year out of date, and, in the whole of 2020, he has published only two statements through his constituency office (both of them general thoughts about Covid).

The last of his speeches to be reported on this same website is dated 2012! His record on surgeries is not good (only six visits here in the whole of 2019, only one this year), and there is no indication of how he wants to manage (telephone) surgeries this year, if at all.

Compare this to his fellow Moorlands Tory MP, Karen Bradley, who is a model of communication, with regular and functioning responses to local (and national) matters, both online and in the newspapers, continuing (telephone) surgeries and ongoing campaigns that she reports back to us on. Is this because Karen has a shaky majority? No, she won two-thirds of the votes at the 2019 election – the same as Sir Bill.

This is not to say that Sir Bill is lazy, far from it – his Parliamentary record shows that he votes regularly, and he speaks on his favourite subject (withdrawal from the EU) often. But, specifically as a local MP, at a time when planning matters are urgent in this constituency with massive developments on the way, when the hospital site is in question, and when the Moorlands is heading for Tier 2, he is a let-down; and his refusal to engage publicly in local issues or to communicate fully with his constituents is almost arrogant.

We need better.

Mark Stewart Cresswell