I’d rather have our MP Gillan in the cabinet (From Bucks Free Press)

I’d rather have our MP Gillan in the cabinet

11:10am Saturday 4th February 2012 in Your Letters

BY the time of the next general election (2015), it may well be too late to stop the blight that is HS2.

As both other mainstream political parties are resolutely in favour, any protest vote is certain to make it more rather than less likely to go ahead. More so, if the outcome of the election was to be a Lib-Lab coalition… Only, the UK Independence Party is against it nationally. And, who would be able to stomach the absurdity of a Conservative-UKIP coalition (even if it were electorally possible) just so that abandoning HS2 might be a bargaining chip in a coalition agreement?

Clearly, local Chiltern Conservatives are very active (and vocal) in their opposition: “we stand with you and fight with you” (HS2 Letters Special, last week) and, again, at county level and beyond (County Councillor Martin Tett, on the same pages).

Right from the start, such opposition has been led by local Conservatives. Not least, the very first public meeting, convened at Misbourne School by County Councillor Mike Colston – where, as Tim Starkey rightly recalls, our MP committed to defy the party whip on the matter. She did not, however, make any reference to resigning her seat or from the cabinet, which would have been presumptuous to say the least, given that the outcome of the 2010 election was then unknown.

That her opponents continue to misrepresent her on this issue reveals only their shabby political opportunism.

Quite simply, I’d rather have Cheryl Gillan as our MP, representing the views of the constituency, even more so, powerfully from within government, than a one-trick protest representative that would be ignored by government and opposition parties alike (rumour has it that other cabinet colleagues very much wish that Cheryl would shut up about HS2!]. Any resignation on her part would only serve to deal away the one real advantage that HS2 campaigners have without gaining anything in return! Seb Berry (a recycled LibDem) has ably demonstrated that protest candidates achieve nothing and have no power to change anything.

Having failed in his objective to stop HS2, he should practice what he preaches and resign.

Stephen M Hayes, Kingfisher Close, Prestwood