With the expenses scandal last year and the hung parliament this year, not to mention the national disillusionment with the leadership of New Labour, it’s no surprise that many people doubt that their own MP ever gives value for money, or is even possible to reach. But I noticed a facebook status update today by my former MP Virendra Sharma, that made me smile.
Virendra is MP for Ealing Southall, which was my constituency until the boundaries were redrawn at the 2010 election – so I now live in the Ealing central constituency.
Virendra has just arrived in India on a business trip where he is meeting local government officials. He has posted on his facebook the address where he is staying and his mobile phone number just in case anyone wants to get in touch while he is away.
MPs still attract a lot of criticism about being removed from reality, so it’s refreshing to see that one local MP is happy to remain open all hours.
mark hillary 
Honestly, that is the very least he should be doing. What does it say about our expectations of an MP when we see fit to show gratitude for something as simple as this. A point about Mr Sharma. I’ve never found reason to consider him a “refreshing” MP. One particular reason is due to his performance during the election. He didn’t bother going to any of the candidate debates on some nonsense pretext about his Tory counterpart being “unfit”. I never got the opportunity to hear his views on any policy (something which remains a mystery) and what added insult to injury was that whilst a hustings was arranged for him to give his view on the imminent closure of the Ealing Hospital A&E, he had more important things to do (having a curry down the road).
H
(PS – nice blog by the way)
I agree, I’m not just doffing my cap in gratitude that an MP is available – I think it was just a note of surprise that he was posting all this information on Facebook. You are right – he should be judged on what he actually does for his constituency.