Hypocrite: Sir Gerald Howarth MP

One of the few buildings in this part of Farnborough of architectural interest. — Sir Gerald Howarth MP

I think it would be a tragedy to sweep it away and replace it with some ghastly modern building. — Sir Gerald Howarth MP

The role of a Member of Parliament, once elected, is to act for his or her constituents, irrespective of party allegiance or how they casted their votes.

When The Wheatsheaf in Tooting Bec was under threat by Tesco, Sadiq Khan MP held a meeting with the boss of Tesco and persuaded them to pull out of the deal. He then persuaded the pubco to keep Tooting Bec as a pub.

So what did Gerald Howarth do, especially in light of his recorded comments? Did he fight for The Tumbledown Dick in Farnborough, as Sadiq Kahn did for The Wheatsheaf in Tooting Bec?

Er no. Gerald Howarth did nothing. Actually he did worse than nothing, it would have been better if he had done nothing.

Gerald Howarth went behind the backs of the local community and cut a back-door dirty little deal with McDonald’s whereby McDonald’s would demolish The Tumbledown Dick and replace with a Drive-Thru McDonald’s.

These were the plans McDonald’s then submitted to the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor as a planning application, these are the plans the planning department of the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor is recommending that councillors approve at their planning meeting on 9 October 2013 (council offices, 7pm Wednesday 9 October 2013).

Objections from over 590 people ignored.

Over 5000 signatures on a petition ignored.

Many people who told Gerald Howarth no to McDonald’s ignored.

Planning grounds ignored:

on a busy dual highway adjacent to a major junction
demolition of a local building of historical importance
obesity
pollution
traffic generation
litter
antisocial behaviour
draining money out of local economy

Gerald Howarth may not act for the local community, but he does an excellent job pimping for unsavoury companies including McDonald’s, payday loan companies, arms dealers flogging weapons to repressive regimes …

Gerald Howarth dislikes his constituents so much that he blocks them from posting on his facebook page, but he was pleased to use it to tell the handful of people who bother to read (he has few facebook friends) that he was looking forward to the Tory shindig in Manchester as an opportunity to meet up with cronies and to promote a meeting of right wing nutters.

He obviously does not understand how social media or social networks works.

– social –> interaction

– network –> many to many

But then that would imply he was interested in the views of his local constituents, let alone representing them.

Tags: Farnborough, Gerald Howarth, Gerald Howarth MP, pubs, Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, Sir Gerald Howarth MP, The Tumbledown Dick

This entry was posted on October 3, 2013 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Aldershot, architecture, buildings, democracy, Farnborough, pubs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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