One of many good things which came out of last week's events in Westminster was that Parliament showed that it was still relevant, still powerful and still able to reflect and respond to the public mood.
Our Member of Parliament demonstrated that, for all the attacks, belittling and criticisms of recent years, they are still able to hold the Executive to account and change the course of history.
I am sustained in the job I do through two core beliefs; that mass participatory democracy is by far the best way for a nation to administer its affairs and that, on balance, the Conservative Party (warts and all) has the best policies to bring about the type of country I want to live in.
I have known, worked alongside and been friends with politicians of all levels since my teenage years. They are fundamentally good people, who enter politics to do their best for the people they represent. It therefore saddens me when I see and hear people, who have seldom made any sacrifices of their own in the field of public service, attacking our politicians as irrelevant.
Only yesterday in Paddock Wood I met a woman who told me with her opening sentence how "bloody useless" all politicians were and how they are "all the same". She then went on to say that the plans to "invade Syria being a case in point." Clearly she didn't realise that the bombs would now be raining down on Damascus had it not been for the very same "bloody useless" politicians she had been condemning a few seconds earlier.
Regardless of the rights or wrongs of Syria and the way the debate was handled, I hope that if one thing comes out of last week is an end to the moronic mantra of "why bother voting, it doesn't make a difference." Last week's events provided the best possible example of why MPs do matter, how they make a difference and how they are not "all the same".
I hope the almost always anonymous critics with their snide comments posted on online forums take time to think through the banality of their dismissive arrogance.
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