News OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from Richard Quigley, Labour Cllr Cowes North and IW Labour Chair. Ed
It’s been quite the week for our MP Bob Seely. It started with his very painful to watch video on LBC, where he effectively said it was OK for the PM to lie and we should just get over it.
Bob obviously thought that wasn’t the best (worst) he could do, so followed it up by voting in favour of Johnson to stay on as PM in exchange for ministers taking another “look” at the funding package for the Island. Otherwise known as the Island deal.
Something Bob assured me was a done deal in the 2019 general election hustings.
A bit naive on these sort of things?
I have come to realise that Bob is a bit naive on these sort of things, but I’m not sure he realised what position he has now placed the Island in.
The Island deal hasn’t happened as promised, but by saying he was persuaded to vote in favour of Johnson in exchange for “another look” at it, means we will never get the extra money we badly need whilst Bob is our MP.
Government will never agree to extra cash now
If the government agrees to the extra cash, every MP in the Tory party will engage in transactional politics, making the government look wholly corrupt.
If they don’t give us the cash, they can claim no such deal was ever done and Bob voted for Boris on merit. Not something his own Conservative association would be too pleased about, let alone the rest of us.
We deserve better than playground tactics, we need a deal that improves the lives of all Islanders, not just Bob.
