On the 6th, I attended MP Tessa Munt's constituency surgery at the Lamb Inn in Axbridge. As did 25 others. Each of us alerted by the 38 Degrees organisation to the Westminster government's 'Gagging Bill'. The official title is the 'Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill'.
The bill is supposedly about lobbying. In reality it is about large mainstream political parties keeping control of politics, and the gagging of charities. Tessa Munt failed to show. Two of her staff did. They said the MP was unwell. She was well enough, hardly more than hours before, to vote for the Gagging Bill in its first parliamentary vote.
Ms Munt is totally loyal to the Government. She has voted 695 times since May 2010.
On only 5 occasions has she voted against her party line.
One of the attendees was local prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate, James Heapey. He only declared his identity near the end of the hour. One person commented that it might have been better if he had done so right at the start. Heappey replied that he didn't want to take over the meeting. Which drew a sharp retort... "No, I don't think you would have done that..".
For all his anodyne 'concerns' expressed.., Heapey, like Tessa Munt, is a complete party person. He makes quite something of his army record in Afghanistan, and his command of soldiers. What he doesn't mention is that as an officer and soldier himself he is accustomed to taking orders.
All that's changed now is that the orders come from Conservative Party HQ, rather than the Army.
Not a trace of independent thinking there.
Update : October 2018.
Prior to the 2017 General Election, there was an electoral hustings held in Axbridge. Most of the parliamentary candidates attended. Afterwards, I approached James Heappey.
"Hi, may I have a word...?"
"Of course...".
"I suggest that you not gate crash a sitting MP's constituency surgery. ?".
"I didn't".
"You lie...".
At which point he made off.
Almost the first thing that James Heappey did when he was elected in 2015 was to ditch the constituency surgeries in Axbridge. And there are still none. So much for his respect for local democracy.
