Richard Baum

There’s a great website called “They Work for You” which has lots of details on your local representatives and how to get in touch. Being an avowed egomaniac, I was on there today looking myself up (I’m not on there, it turns out, but it’s nothing personal, they just don’t include Councillors. For that, try here), when I found the voting records and other information on Bury’s two Labour MPs. They make fairly startling reading.

For instance, both Ivan Lewis (the MP for Bury South, Prestwich’s MP) and David Chaytor (MP for Bury North) have voted against a transparent Parliament. They has voted strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war, and strongly for ID cards. Are these the type of views that the people of Bury hold? I would suggest not, and yet our representatives in Parliament don’t seem to mind.

Why don’t you check out the site yourself. Interesting reading.

Rick