Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 30 March 2009.
Patrick Mercer
Conservative, Newark
2:30,
30 March 2009
The Secretary of State will be aware that a fortnight ago I was with my old battalion, the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, as it deployed to Afghanistan. The worries of the families clearly revolved around the possible death or injury of their husbands, boyfriends and so on, but, above and beyond that, on the regiment's previous tour they deeply resented the delays caused to rest and recuperation flights back from Afghanistan and to the final trooping flight when the battalion returned from there. I cannot overestimate the resentment that this caused, so will the Secretary of State assure me that will not happen again to the battalion?
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James Clark
Posted on 5 Apr 2009 9:29 am (Report this annotation)
I think it would be better for the people of Newark if Mr Mercer, deployed to Afghanistan, with his old battalion because like a rubber ball he invariably bounces back to them. Some of us deeply resent the fact that he neglected to inform us that his overriding priority, or so it would seem, is the military above and beyond all else indeed I think his mania, his great "passion" and perhaps the real reason he wanted to be our MP will always be of paramount priority to him.
Patrick Mercer, said he could do the job properly and in him we would have the MP we richly deserve and then seemingly he gave our correspondence over to his wife and we got what we so richly deserved while he prospered and made a name for himself and travelled the world.
Patrick Mercer said: "flying a desk was not up my street at all" (i.e. doing office work) thus it would seem his wife and secretary fulfil that important duty to Newark people and thereby he can have his cake and eat it too.
To be an MP is to represent a constituency and speak for that constituency, to fly a desk, and be troubled that there is vandalism in the burial ground of our beloved dead or that our hospital and emergency service is inadequate like that of our Police service.
It's about time our MP worked mostly for the betterment of Newark people and let shadow ministers and those employed to deal with military and security matters, do their job, without interference from a town MP.