Proroguing Parliament/Logan and Cronberry Street Surgery

It has been an eventful week to say the least. On Wednesday (28th August) it came to light that it was the new Prime Minister’s intention to suspend parliament and make a mockery of our democratic system.

Of course, we are now in a position where The Queen has given her go ahead and the unelected new PM will have his wish.

Proroguing parliament is a disaster and means that the Government cannot be held accountable for their actions and therefore cannot be scrutinised. Apparently, this is the longest such suspension since World War 2. Yet there is so much to debate and discuss the practicalities of what they are proposing. What does this mean for travel for our EU citizens resident in the UK, given the Government has also pledged to end freedom of movement on November 1st? How can they do this, leave the single market and not have a border in Northern Ireland? Given the previous ferry contract farces, can we trust them to have the proper contingencies in place?

Whilst this chaos was boiling over, I was in Logan and Cronberry conducting a street surgery with my office staff. Despite the risk of severe rain, the weather kept up and it was great to work our way across the village and engage with constituents.

I was able to discuss at length a whole host of topics. From local matters all the way to what’s going on with Brexit! It’s fair to say there is a lot of frustration at what’s going on at the moment and a sense of disillusion around Westminster related politics.

I was humbled to hear the amount of support from constituents in the area. Even residents I spoke to who had different political beliefs but were still complimentary of the fact I had gone out and chapped doors in the area. Especially as a few constituents made comments about the area being neglected by local politicians and councillors from other parties.

I am hoping to be back in the coming weeks with another street surgery in the Lugar and Muirkirk area.