MP has lost touch with voters

Oct 7 2010 Buckinghamshire Advertiser

AS ONE of the signatories to the letter calling on Cheryl Gillan to resign her ministerial post to fight HS2 (Examiner, September 23), I was surprised and disappointed to hear her dismiss our initiative as a political stunt.

For the record, while Seb Berry may be a Liberal Democrat local election candidate, I most certainly am not a Liberal Democrat voter. I would not presume to know the political sympathies of the many Great Missenden businesses who also signed the letter.

I would venture to suggest, however, that many, like me, probably voted for Cheryl Gillan on the basis of her loudly proclaimed (pre-general election) opposition to HS2.

Since then, there has been a deafening silence. Anyone in doubt should visit her website.

If she is indeed working behind the scenes in the cabinet against HS2, the results are hardly encouraging. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond appears to have actually hardened his stance on the preferred route and gives no indication of changing his mind.

Many good people up and down the preferred route are working all hours to fight it. Unlike Cheryl Gillan they do not receive ministerial salaries. They are researching and writing legal and technical objections, contacting media, holding meetings, organising marches, providing hospitality, printing and distributing leaflets (at their own expense) or collecting funds.

The 'stunt' to which Cheryl Gillan refers actually took two whole days of my time to gather signatures. The 33 businesses which signed insisted on reading the letter carefully from beginning to end and many just wanted someone with whom to discuss their fears about the whole HS2 project.

Once they had read it, they were only too willing to commit. Only one person declined, but that was on the grounds that Cheryl Gillan was not his MP.

I venture to suggest that Cheryl Gillan has lost touch with her voters, certainly here in Great Missenden.

This impression was reinforced by your letters page on September 30. If she does not up her game drastically, the calls for her to resign may not be confined to her cabinet post.

MARILYN FLETCHER

Chiltern Manor Park Great Missenden