As we all know by now, on Friday, June 15th, Sir Chris Chope, MP for Christchurch, made a monumental mistake.
He did what he’s done many, many times in the past and blocked a private member’s bill from going through the House of Commons. He and other belligerent MPs, such as Phillip Davies, see it as their duty to hold democracy to ransom one Friday each month, and stop these bills from going through to the House of Lords, before they return to the Commons and possibly become legislation.
Their reasoning is simple, they do not believe this type of legislation is the way it should be done, and so they abuse archaic means to prevent bills that have often taken months of writing, rewriting, and negotiation to that point. Like the ‘upskirting’ bill a little over a week ago which had cross-party support, and is even already law in Scotland, and most people would expect it to be exactly the kind of law that is needed in today’s society asap, but Sir Chope had other ideas.
Not only has Sir Chope been called a ‘dinosaur’ by his Tory MP colleagues in Dorset, whilst others have stated he does not represent the views of the Party, but he has lost the respect of the local people he is employed and elected to represent. Has Sir Chope apologised to the victim (disproportionately women) or potential victims to whom his actions have caused further pain and heartache? No.
Following the ‘knickers to Chope’ protest last Thursday, inspired by local resident Lorna Rees, Christchurch Labour Party ran a protest stall the following Saturday 23rd June 2018, which was so popular it made the local news.
You may believe this is no big deal, and maybe in any town in London or elsewhere it wouldn’t be, but in these Tory heartlands of Dorset this signifies a seismic shift of opinion. With Conservative members attending the stall saying they’ll never vote for him again, and that it’s time he stepped aside, will Sir Chope heed these calls and the will of the people, or as ever, will he do what he wants, because he can?!
We shall see, but I suspect Sir Chope is now not quite so eager for another general election. Hands up who wants to do the hustings against him?!!
Andy Dunne
Join us in helping to bring reality and decency back by SUBSCRIBING to our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ1Ll1ylCg8U19AhNl-NoTg and SUPPORTING US where you can: Award Winning Independent Citizen Media Needs Your Help. PLEASE SUPPORT US FOR JUST £2 A MONTH https://dorseteye.com/donate/
