Rehman Chishti - A small retraction by me.

Every great General in History has been forced to give ground, to retreat when he has over extended himself and his line of attack; Blucher withdrew from Ligny before riding to Waterloo to save Wellington, General Howe withdrew from Philadelphia to move closer to his supply bases, even Paulus knew withdrawal was necessary at Stalingrad.

I fear in my last post I over extended myself and stretched my supply lines. A very excellent post from Alan W. Collins has formed an excellent counter attack, as has the flank strike from @GrannyDarley. I am forced to admit defeat and withdraw from my forward position and confess; I was wrong.

Yep, that was an admission, something you won't hear from a lot of politicians or politicos, especially in Medway, but I am not afraid to admit it at all.

Rehman Chishti's record in parliament is indeed impressive and as I stated in my original post he may indeed be beavering away and working damned hard. Indeed it seems he is.

It is exceptionally important that an MP is at Parliament and I agree with Alan that it is their primary purpose and role - Representing the constituents and working on major bills

I will cede this ground gladly- as a constituent I am indeed glad that he is doing what he was voted in (and is paid) to do. I am also heartened that his constituents do have faith in him.

I do, however fall back to familiar land, a spot I do feel comfortable defending and here I will make my stand.

No matter how hard you work in Parliament you need it to be publicised. Normal folk do not watch BBC parliament, keep pace with Twitter, read Political journals (Hell most don't even read the paper) and if you want people to know what you are doing or what you think about key issues you need to have it in the local press. Tracey Crouch and Mark Reckless are often in the Medway Messenger voicing their opinions on national and local issues including the proposed airport at Hoo or in the estuary and some of us know that Rehman raised a question in parliament but the majority of others don't because he's not thrusting himself in the public eye.

I'm not suggesting that he do a Jordan or Kerry Katona and take over the local media until we are sick of him, I'm just saying that keeping people informed is a good thing.
It is better to tell us now as things are done rather than turning up at 2015 when people have already got in mind whom they will vote for and saying;
"But, I've been doing this...."
Better that in 2015 people can look at the pamphlet through the door and say;

"Yeah, Reh Chishti. He was the MP that fought to stop Boris Island, I may not vote Conservative but he has been good for the community so I'll vote him in again."

By not commenting on stories, by not making himself to journalists phone calls (as was reported in today's McGuinness on Monday in the Medway Messenger) he is cutting himself off from the voters. They want to know what he is doing, what his thoughts on subjects are and if they think he is self serving, or not there for the community and primarily in London to secure a ministerial career then he will face a certain amount of backlash from the electorate in 2015.
He also needs to be seen on the streets of Gillingham and Rainham more, go to events like the demonstration outside Gunwharf tomorrow to save Nelson Court, going to or being seen at local events like school fetes, charities or youth groups, actually being at Gillingham or Rainham train station to meet commuters... The odd morning here or there goes a long way in people's minds.

If things continue the way they are then there will be a MASSIVE anti- Coalition backlash and as a marginal seat holder Rehman Chishti will have to impress as many voters as he can now, give people a damn good reason to keep him on and not swing to Labour. (or dare I say it Lib Dem????)