Prior to the election I mentioned the replacement of our long-standing MP, Harry Barnes, with Natascha Engel, a ‘Blair babe’. Just as a recap, I have been to see what we are actually getting out of this person.
Let’s see, Harry Barnes was a frequent rebel, his replacement never rebels, still, she hardly ever turns up to vote, so maybe that isn’t too much of a surprise. What a complete waste of space.
They Work For You has the full SP.
She’s on maternity leave.
I still think that we ought to get responses from her office when we contact them, which I have done twice.
In fact, I’m struggling with the concept of maternity leave for an mp, surely someone should stand in? Not much of a democracy when we are not responded to or represented at all. 🙁
Oh, I’m impressed. She’s managed to turn up to pass the identity cards bill along, which is one of the things I’ve contacted her to complain about 🙁
Ho hum…. I checked our local MP, a real Blair babe 🙁
i think for the general population, if you go to work on mat leave you have to then return fully as leave ended as you have shown yourself fit to resume.you could ask how it is different?
well, greg mullholland in leeds doing what i wanted! present mP a conservative ……
Helen, your point re mat leave is precisely what occurred to me this evening – if she can turn up for a vote, she can surely start answering correspondence. Or getting a member of staff to do it!
but the thing is, if she turned up, her mat leave is immediately considered finished. She can’t be on mat leave AND vote.Her vote is void, or her mat leave.
Baby was born on 30 May. First vote she partook in after that was 2005-06-28 Identity cards. I have contacted her office twice and had no response, and once was about Identity cards. So I will assume she is now no longer on maternity leave and contact her again to ask why she doesn’t respond to contacts.
Grrr
I have written four times. Here’s the brief story.
I first wrote around 7 May just after the election to get my questions in first. (Seven in total, including about ID cards, civil liberties etc. etc.)
Four weeks, no reply. But I was aware she was on maternity leave. Wrote follow up following EU Constitution referendums to modify one of my original questions to be broader constitutionally. Cc’d letter to Hugh Dykes (Lords) who had spoken in a debate about using this “period of reflection” to reach out to the folks of this country to give some “education” about the arrangements. Three weeks, no reply.
With David Puttnam’s (Lords) report out on the sad state of democracy in this country, wrote reminder letter asking for timely response to my questions – I’d saw that she had voted on the ID cards bill (for, suprise, suprise)- suggesting that knowing that where she stood on matters before she went through the division might be a sign of quality democracy (maybe even with a capital D). Also pointed out web sites where some passing comments had been made – So Now Who Do We Vote For, and *this* one). Cc’d letter to David Puttnam. Bisto.
Letter back from assistant in London saying that she’d received all the letters apart from the first (with all the original seven questions plus some context setting) and saying, of course you know she’s been on maternity leave and that she would reply ASAP. Puttnam also sent postcard noting my comments. I reconstituted the first letter and sent it off. That was, again, about four weeks ago and it’s gone quiet again.
That’s about it. Last Web sighting of her was her judging a scarecrow competition or something in one of our constituency villages. Don’t have the URL to hand here, but at SASBlog, under previous/ID cards Dean and I tracked this and in the final entry there’s the scarecrow URL 🙂
Heh “I’d saw…”
Of course. “I saw…”
Oh BTW. Geoff “Buff” Hoon’s idea of gingering-up democracy in this country, in response to Puttnam’s report is compulsory voting with a few salutory fines here and there to drive the message home. Just like when seatbelts were introduced (seriously, he used seatbelts as an analogy to participation in democracy and folks wonder with geniuses involved like that involved in the Iraq issue that the folks there are still wondering which way round to buckle-up, clunk-click every vote :-))
I am all for compsulory voting. Let’s start with MPs, shall we?
Incidentally, as I would understand it you are either on maternity leave or you are not, legally you cannot swan in and out when you like.
Assume you’ve both already signed up to this?
Your constituency mailing list
Don’t know the ramifications myself, but sounds reasonable enough to me (you are or you are not, that is).
She claimed, I think it was in one of her press releases (Beeb Online, I think) that she planned to use her maternity leave to get to know her constituents better. I guess that was the scarecrow business. Much better than answering bothersome stuff on civil rights etc. etc.
Just signed up, thanks for pointing that out.
This past Saturday I received a hard copy reply from Natascha Engel to my “seven questions.” They ranged from vote reform through Iraq/Iran, civil liberties/rights (ID cards) to climate change.
I’m editing up a file with my questions and her answers and I’m happy to email a copy to anyone who requests. Just send me an email at dsmith1usa@fsmail.net titled say, “Engelfile” with a return address and I’ll get the file off by the end of this week at the latest.
How did you contact her David? I’ve used the writetothem service, which I used with great success with Harry Barnes in the past, I think he had one of the best records on the site when it was faxyourmp. Wondering whether I should give up on that and write to her direct.
Good ‘ol fashioned snail mail at the standard Commons mailing address:
Natascha Engel, MP
(N.E. Derbyshire)
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
It doesn’t appear she’s too bothered with using writetothem – that goes to her email box.
When I contacted her parlimentary assistant (via the enquires form on east midlands labour party site) regarding ways to contact Engels she gave me the snail mail address and a telephone number (0207 219 4709)
I then replied enquiring about her use of email and fax and she gave me the email address engeln@parliament.uk.
The fact that she didn’t immediatly hand out the email address, and never replied to my message via writetothem on ID cards leads me to guess that email is not a reliable way of contact.
P.S. I finally made it here, David
I am writing to Greg Mullholland MP for Leeds North West,as part of my college studies on public interest events in the local community. When he was a Leeds City Councillor, did he buy a suit from a Chinese tailor who came to Leeds Civic Hall.
I don’t think Mr Mullholland will be a hurry to reply to this issue!!!
Yours faithfully
Albert Slingby