Part of Constitutional Affairs – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 19 December 2006.
Vera Baird
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs
11:30,
19 December 2006
There is absolutely no connection between the two. Means-testing is an appropriate system to stop the scandalous events that occurred when the cases of people who could well afford to pay for their own criminal defence were funded none the less by the taxpayers in Redcar and those in the hon. Lady's Constituency, whose interests she does not appear at the moment to be protecting. [ Interruption. ] I will take no lessons from the hon. Lady about social exclusion. It is extremely—
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
Annotations
Victoria Moore
Posted on 20 Dec 2006 6:04 pm (Report this annotation)
Dear Mrs Hansard, I am quite frankly shocked at your comments in the Commons yesterday regarding "social exclusion". All cabinet members seem to report social exclusion means being coloured, from an ethnic minority and therefore automatically deserves more money for housing, welfare, legal aid,legal representatives etc. If ethnic minorities are here to be such a benefit to our society why are you so worried about how much legal aid they get? The fact that a majority of young ethnic minorities are in trouble with the law surely reflects their benefit to this society. How can you justify asking the British taxpayer to pay for them when committing crime is such an enjoyment to them? Surely if you have a council flat and live(and your family) surely you are not Socially excluded,but being pampered by the Government? Surely it is the taxpayer of Britain who are socially excluded, the ones no longer given council flats and support in exchange for this "diversity". You seem to enjoy dishing out English taxpayers money without worrying about where it is going? How do you explain this. I am homeless, not on benefits and not on the Governments books but I am not also not considered "socially excluded". Is this because I am not black. How can a black be socially excluded when they have all legal aid paid for them? Is the Government going to pay for my lawyer? The phrase Black and legal aid seems to go hand and hand with you people, so how is it they are benefiting our society, or what is left of what you people have made of it? Yours sincerely, Victoria Moore.
Victoria Moore
Posted on 20 Dec 2006 6:06 pm (Report this annotation)
Labour. Hello spods Merry Christmas and Goodbye in the New Year.
Rob Newman
Posted on 10 Jan 2007 10:44 am (Report this annotation)
"Dear Mrs Hansard" eh? Ha!