I enjoyed the debate on Saturday between myself, John Merry, Norman Owen and Eileen Fairhurst of the PCT. There was a decent crowd (the event as a whole was very busy) and I hope they found the debate interesting, although there was some understandable frustration that the session was not more interactive and that the questions had been pre-selected.
Personally I would have liked to see a longer session with a few more hot topics to get our teeth stuck into – schools and maternity services are two obvious ones! I hope that the Council will not get cold feet at the thought of some genuine political debate and I hope these events will become a regular feature in the future. Perhaps we might even see some debates organised between the three party leaders in the run-up to local elections? Personally I think that would be a welcome development, although I must stress it isn’t something I’ve discussed with anyone!
Write To Them League Table
My attention has been drawn to the Write To Them League Table measuring the responsiveness of our MPs to e-mails sent by constituencies.
The table makes grim reading for Worsley Labour MP Barbara Keeley, who ranks a miserable 583rd of the 633 MPs who are registered on the system - she replied promptly to less than one-third of e-mails sent via the site. Hazel Blears doesn’t fare much better, at 514th and a response rate of less than 50%. Only Eccles MP Ian Stewart comes out with any credit, and even he only ranks 325th. Could do much better.