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MP cannot claim credit
• LAST week’s Tribune chronicled yet another month of flip-flopping from Islington’s Labour MP Emily Thornberry, first about the licensing of alcohol sales and then on the closure of our post offices.
On the front page she claimed to have “called for stricter controls of licences” (‘Call time on booze bonanza’, May 9). Yet it was the Labour government that has Ms Thornberry’s unquestioning loyalty that brought in these licensing laws. And, whatever she may say to the press, in her time in Parliament she hasn’t once challenged the government on the content of the Licensing Act.
She’s never tabled a motion calling for stricter control of licences, never even raised the issue of alcohol with ministers.
The Liberal Democrat council has tackled binge drinking where it is a problem. For example, we recently instituted a dispersal zone to clear problem drinkers from a park, with the support of residents. We are taking practical action; Ms Thornberry is just soundbites.
Then she goes on to say how she’s “feeling really pleased with myself” and claiming the credit for singlehandedly saving the post office at Essex Road (Shock news of closures takes shine off success, May 9). What nonsense. Local campaigners worked hard to save this post office; they got more than 5,000 signatures on a petition, which they took to Downing Street.
It’s disgraceful for a Labour MP to step in at the last minute and smugly claim credit for herself.
What makes her cheek even worse is that she voted in Parliament for the closure of the post offices. Only two months ago she voted against suspending the post office closures. As a direct result of her vote, 155 post offices have been axed, including four branches in Islington.
CLLR MARISHA RAY
Lib Dem, Clerkenwell
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