The Illiberal Dipshits have appointed Lembit Öpik, MP for Montgomery, to their shadow cabinet with responsibility for housing.

Housing is devolved to the Welsh Assembly in Mr Öpik’s own constituency so his constituents were unable to give him a mandate on English housing.  I’ve just sent the following email to his constituency office:

Dear Mr Öpik,

I note with dismay that you have accepted a job in the Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet with responsibility for housing.

In your own constituency in Montgomeryshire, housing has been devolved to the Welsh Assembly.  When you were elected, you were given a mandate by your constituents on those matters that are reserved to the British government.  They did not – and can not – give you a mandate on matters that are devolved to the Welsh Assembly.

If, by some bizarre twist of fate (such as all the other parties forgetting there was an election) the Lib Dems were to win an election, how would you claim a moral or democratic mandate to interfere in English housing when you have no say on the same policies in your own constituency?  Would you be happy for an MP elected in England to have responsibility for housing in your constituency but not in their own?

Stuart Parr

I’ve also sent this to my local paper which Öpik sometimes writes for:

I read with dismay that Lembit Öpik has accepted a position on the Lib Dem shadow cabinet with responsibility for housing.

In Montgomeryshire, where Lembit Öpik was elected, housing is the responsibility of the Welsh Assembly.  When Mr Öpik was elected, his constituents elected him to represent their interests only on matters that aren’t taken care of by the Welsh Assembly.  They did not – and can not – give him a mandate on English housing.

My MP, David Wright, has no say on housing anywhere other than England – neither does Lembit Öpik.  The difference is, my MP has been given a mandate by an English electorate on housing, Lembit Öpik hasn’t.

The sooner we get an English Parliament and stop no-mandate foreign MPs from interfering in English affairs the better.

Stuart Parr
Campaign for an English Parliament

Technorati Tags: Lib Dems, Lembit Opik, No Mandate