Relaxing in the Recess
A favourite summer 'silly season' story for the national press is to keep running items on the 'disgracefully' long holidays MP's are having in expensive and exotic locations. Never one to let the facts ruin a good story they of course ignore anything that does not fit their pre conceived ideas. Journalists from national newspapers contacted my office to see where I was holidaying. Upon being told that I was camping on a farm in Devon they carefully left me out of their stories the next day!
As for working during recess I have to 'confess' that I tend to 'only' do a 40 hour week during the summer compared to the 70 hour week I put in when splitting the week half in London (where Parliament runs until 10.30pm on Monday and Tuesday nights for example), and half at home in Chesterfield. Take the week beginning the 17th August:
On the Monday I spent all day at 69 West Bars seeing constituents who had booked in to my advice surgery (I also visited one at home in Staveley as they were housebound). Wednesday I spent with the Probation Service (Probation Officers, Drugs and Alcohol workers, Community Payback, Victim Support etc).On the Friday I spent nearly 6 hours on patrol with the police.
In between these events I was, as Liberal Democrat Home Affairs and Justice Spokesman, reported on the 18th by the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and Radio Sheffield in a story on whether the police should be given the power to issue on the spot fines to careless drivers. On the 19th the Independent and Radio 4 reported my views in a story on a Customs blunder over fining tobacco smugglers under a law that had been repealed in 2001! Peak FM also carried a report from me about the unemployment figures in Derbyshire as did the Advertiser on the 21st. Also on the 21st the Daily Mail reported my views in a story about proposed new powers for the Courts to restrain 'stalkers' even when they are cleared in court.
Of course I also had large quantities of constituent's emails and letters to deal with too.Do other MP's work like this in the summer? Well only they can answer that.