They don’t appear to appreciate the role of an MP
I NOTE that our Member of Parliament, Nicky Morgan, is being labelled in some parts of the national press as a “collaborator” or a “mutineer” for holding the government to account on its Brexit negotiations.
These “journalists” don’t appear to appreciate the role of Members of Parliament.
According to www.parliament. uk it is described in these quotes:
“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion … Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advo- cates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.
You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.’ Edmund Burke’s Speech to the Electors of Bristol, 3 Nov. 1774.
‘The first duty of a member of Parliament is to do what he thinks in his faithful and disinterested judgement is right and necessary for the honour and safety of Great Britain. His second duty is to his constituents, of whom he is the representative but not the dele- gate. Burke’s famous declaration on this subject is well known. It is only in the third place that his duty to party organization or programme takes rank. All these three loyalties should be observed, but there in no doubt of the order in which they stand under any healthy manifestation of democracy.’ Sir Winston Churchill on the Duties of a Member of Parliament.
Whilst I did not vote for Nicky Morgan in the last election, I appreciate that she is doing her best to protect the country and her constituents from the adverse effects of a “hard Brexit” on our economy, our security and the situation in Ireland.
John Catt