Friday 1 May 2009

great questions

to which the answer is No.

the point having been well made by Cllr Willis here

where he asks the question "Has Martin Salter No Shame?" I have known Mr Salter for well over 20 years but even I am disappointed now. He asked a Prime Minister's Question this week, after months of gurning for the media about Gurkhas. He spoke in Parliament about going to the funeral of a Gurkha veteran from Reading. (That veteran was, of course, a Reading East constituent.) Then there was a LibDem motion - on the Gurkha veterans' issue. Then there was a vote. He abstained. He used the same line in the media he has used many times before, notably when he abstained on Crossrail, namely that he would not vote against the government because he had received "private assurances" on the issue. This even though he had pledged to use "all Parliamentary means" to campaign for the Gurkhas. Except speaking in the House on the issue. He was silent throughout the debate, if he was there at all. And did not vote, obviously. Those two little letters after the name, "MP" mean that you are, er, a Member of Parliament, and that your place is there. If Mr Salter changed his mind on the Gurkha issue, as he is entitled to do, then given that he had been a clanging cymbal for the media, and had also made a self-justificatory statement, published uncritically by the Daily Telegraph, on his U-turn, why did he not stand up in the House and state his position? His constituents deserve that much, even though it was a deceased Reading East constituent he had most recently spoken about. An amendment was tabled in his name as well as in that of George Howarth, a Labour MP I always found to be honourable and decent though we did not always agree. But he did not speak to it. Did not speak at all. Only to the newspapers. Shame. Shame.

He didn't use this line when he abstained on Iraq He just lied.

Which is worse?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Impossible to say which was worse. Martin "say cheese" Salter was morally morally both times and of course completely hypocritical.

Anonymous said...

Do you think Salter should/can continue as chair of the Gurkhas rights group in parliament?

Ian said...

Salter is a fraud and no mistake.

What happened to janestheone? I only found you here via a comment on Warren's blog.

howard thomas said...

Bearing in mind how prominent he has been in the campaign for the Gurkhas , his voting pattern has just hit a new low.
And there isn't even the question of not wanting to upset the leadership with view to a promotion.
Baffling!

Hannah said...

surely the answer is yes he has no shame?

Tyler said...

Jane

Salter is a creature of the gutter, a yob in MP's clothing.

Do you honestly expect anything better.

Anonymous said...

Nothing should surprise anyone where Salter is concerned,if he had the courage of his convictions he would have voted against the Govt last week,as usual he bottled it and abstained - typical.In just the same way as he has done a runner before we can kick him out at the next General Election,he's totally shameless!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, Anon 14.44. Deprived us of seeing his face next morning! NOw that is a shame..Mind you hopefully others will make up for this (and this is just in Reading). Can't wait!