Jane Tuckett: independent parliamentary candidate for Hackney South
Jane Tuckett, independent parliamentary candidate for Hackney South
Jane Tuckett is a housewife who is happy to admit that she has “no previous political experience”.
She has a law degree, however, and she has entered politics for the first time as an independent candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch “to represent those like myself, who feel that they have been ignored by the system.”
Ms Tuckett has lived in Dalston for 25 years, has three grown children and she helps to look after her grandchildren.
Her key policy pledges include:
Regular consultation with constituents to identify their major concerns
Identification, promotion, and support for the founding of local consultation/working groups. These will be composed of representatives from all concerned political parties, organisations and sectional groups that have a particular interest in, knowledge of or skill in the subject under consideration. The members of these groups will be required to co-operate, working across all party and sectional interest lines, to devise and implement sensible, practical solutions with the overriding objective of benefiting as many Hackney constituents as possible.
In Parliament, she will support any legislation that assists in these initiatives and oppose any that hinders them, irrespective of which party is introducing the measure. Where there are national issues that have a special impact upon her constituency, such as the 2012 Olympics, she will campaign to ensure that constituents derive a lasting benefit.
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“I believe that the candidates from the established parties are restricted by party policies from having the freedom that is required to adopt solutions that are suitable for Hackney’s unique circumstances,” says Jane Tuckett.
“What is needed is an approach that cuts across party boundaries – an approach founded upon objective, commonsense principles to be applied in the true spirit of co-operation. Such an approach needs to be engineered by someone that is independent of the established parties and who has no sectional interests to represent.
“As an independent MP, I will be able to take regular soundings of constituents’ major concerns and promote the establishment of local consultation/working groups that will be empowered to devise and implement sensible, practical solutions with the overriding objective of securing the maximum benefit for the maximum number of constituents,” she said.
Note: this article was published at 10.30pm on Friday 30 April 2010
Another independent candidate in Hackney South and Shoreditch with no ideas of her own then…
What do these people think every other MP does, spend all their time with their fingers in their ears?
ALL MPs have regular consultation with constituents to identify their major concerns. I know because I’ve worked for various MPs for years.
What we need is ideas about how to make the country a better place, and legislation from the centre which will reflect the needs of our area, not a vague aspiration to have wider consultation.
Hackney Borough Council carries out up to 100 consultations every year and the participation rates are rubbish.
“What do these people think every other MP does, spend all their time with their fingers in their ears?”
That’s about the level of service we have come to expect, yes. Perhaps you’ve worked for unusually good MPs, not ones in safe seats.
My last three MPs have included one who never answers their phone (and I mean their office doesn’t answer the phone, ever, not just the MP personally), a different one who didn’t reply to mail, two who rarely answered a letter or email in less than six weeks and then you’d be lucky if they addressed your points instead of sending a not-particularly-relevant form letter, and one them didn’t even have an email address and explicitly stated that expecting him to receive and reply to emails from his constituents was a ridiculous idea. He was not alone in this belief, in fact one of the last candidates for the role of Speaker was of the same opinion.
There’s a reason so many independents are running on a platform of open, transparent communication, consultation and consensus-building – it’s because we don’t believe our MPs are making enough effort in that direction.
I personally believe that having wider consultation, with power to actually effect change (i.e. direct democracy), is exactly what is required to “make our country a better place”. It would appear that many other candidates and various third sector projects agree.
Perhaps you’ve spent too much time inside the system, and not enough looking at it from the outside. It’s a frustrating view from out here.
In reply to Tom – my experience with MPs has been pretty much the same as Denny’s. Once these people get in, the only time that they’re really interested in listening again is when it’s time to be re-elected. If you aren’t totally ignored, you get fobbed off with an irrelevant party line. Also, many of the consultations that are held are designed to get the results the questioner wants, so that the desired policy can be pushed through having paid lip-service to consultation. That is probably why the participation rates to the Council consultations are so low – people think that whatever they say won’t affect things. Under the consultations that I propose, it will be the responses received that set the agenda of issues to be addressed and how that may be done – not the other way round. If Tom cares to have a look at the digital debate, he will see that I have made specific proposals in response to some of the issues raised – on assisting first time buyers and Robin Hood Tax on banks for example – that are just as specific as comments from some of the other candidates.