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The People’s Voice
Hull Daily Mail
Blundells Corner
Beverley Road
Hull
HU3 1XS
LETTER FOR PUBLICATION
1 November 2006
Dear Editor,
A Jackson (Mail letters, 1 November) raises the issue of the number of letters that my staffed offices in Hull and Westminster send to my Hull North constituents, and makes the comparison with
pensions. I am pleased that the Labour Government has acted in a range of ways to help the poorest pensioners since 1997 and has announced that it will restore the link, broken under the Tories,
between the basic state pension and earnings.
On the unrelated issue of the £11,300 cost in 2005/06 of supplying my offices with pre-paid stationery, this simply indicates that I am an active and accountable constituency MP. I would be
attacked just as much if I did not take up casework for constituents; made no effort to respond to the large number of letters about policy issues that I receive from constituents daily; or if I
did not bother keeping constituents in regular touch with my work. Given that only a fraction of my activity gets reported in the local media, it is necessary to contact constituents directly -
through letters, e-mails, newsletters and my website at www.dianajohnson.co.uk.
Finally, as the Mail’s headline describes me contacting constituents as “wasting” money, I would invite – indeed challenge - a Hull Daily Mail journalist to spend a week shadowing me in my work at
Westminster and in Hull North. I cannot be more open than that!
Yours sincerely,
Diana Johnson MP
Kingston upon Hull North
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1 November 2006: To Hull Daily Mail
