DEREK THOMAS MP
EARLY last Thursday morning the door to my Wharfside Shopping Centre office was kicked in and CCTV shows a very determined effort to inflict as much damage as possible. The irony of this vandalism, on the day we chose who leads our policing, was not lost on me; neither did the behaviour surprise me but, if the motivation is a dislike for me and the way I do my job, it achieves nothing. What it does do is affect my staff, who do the job because they care about people in need of assistance, and my staff are good at their job and remarkably divorced from party politics when serving in my office. This level of vandalism also adds to the workload of our policemen and women and costs the taxpayer. I am quite convinced that whoever is responsible won’t be reading this but, whilst vandalism and antisocial behaviour towards me and my office are rare, emails with content that is unacceptable in a civilised society are not, and it is guaranteed that my staff will be exposed to this content as well as me, the intended recipient. I’ve had staff leave in the past due to the toxic nature of some of the correspondence and I feel strongly defensive of my staff, who can feel worn down and discouraged. We live in a democratic society and people will be able to make their feelings known later in the year, as they did on Thursday at the polls. For those who feel the need to email or post on social media (I suspect in a way they would never speak to another human being) could you please spare my staff and express your view at the next polling day? Thank you.
Thursday was obviously not the Conservative Party’s finest hour. I believe what is needed is a clearer and bolder vision for Great Britain and Northern Ireland with clarity about what more we will do to support and build our armed forces, how we project our place in the world through innovation and compassion and more on how we will improve lives in all parts of the country as we move to a healthier and fairer society. The transition away from fossil fuels offers the most exciting opportunities for every part of the country. The Government has an opportunity to show how it is going to deliver this, including the healthy homes and skilled jobs everyone deserves to have access to. I say this because support for Conservatives has not fallen to quite the extent some predicted, so there is reason to rally and put our best foot forward for the general election later in the year. Alison Hernandez secured her third term as police and crime commissioner. A snapshot of votes at the count on Friday showed much stronger support for Labour in St Ives than some would like us to believe. On Scilly, Labour outperformed the Liberal Democrats. I’m not so sure that it will the two-horse race at the next general election that the Liberal Democrats hope for.