Simon Hart MP

CONTINUING our interview with Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire MP, this week we look forward to May’s General Election and Simon Hart’s ambitions for the next Parliament.

We asked Mr Hart whether the fixed term of this Parliament had led to its last year being wasted on campaigning for a General Election that everyone knows is coming at a fixed point in time.

He disagreed: “I wouldn’t go that far. Every Parliament comes to an end and those are, more or less, predictable, whether a government goes to the country after three or four years. In the final period before an election, very little legislation can get on the statute books because it falls when the election comes along. That period might seem pretty dreary, but that has always been the case. Our country needed certainty in May 2010 and the fixed term of this Parliament helped to provide that.”

The plight of Liberal Democrats, who are widely anticipated to face heavy losses in May, was something with which Simon Hart empathised: “I am probably more sympathetic than some of my colleagues would be. I have a good working relationship in the House with my LibDem colleagues, LibDems in Wales, and with – I think – LibDem voters in my constituency.

“We should remember that it would have been simple for the LibDems to sit back in 2010 and watch the Conservatives try to deal with the economic mess we were in. They could have watched a minority government wallow and be unable to achieve anything or tackle the economic problems it faced. They could have sat back and done nothing, but they did not. The Liberal Democrats made a big, unpopular decision to go into a coalition when they could have acted expediently in the own self-interest. But they did not. That decision has come at a price; I think, however, that history will judge the LibDems’ decision to go into a coalition far more kindly than current commentators.”

Apart from being a member of it, we then asked Mr Hart what his ambitions were for the next Parliament:

“I want to continue as an MP, of course. I love what I do. There are times when you have to fight many frustrations, days when you wonder ‘what’s the point?’, but what I do as an MP is deeply satisfying. That satisfaction comes in a number of ways: I like sticking up for the little guy against a big bureaucracy or the sort of big organisation that can dominate people’s lives; I enjoy the satisfaction of helping a constituent – even if it is in a small way – to sort out a problem.

“I look at my constituency: I enjoy visiting new business and I am delighted to see the children of friends find jobs that could last a lifetime. Everything I care about in life is within thirty minutes or so of where we are now sitting. In terms of a specific fight: I want to continue to fight the battle for local health care.”

He continued: “I am a small cog in the big wheel of an administration that has fought hard to make the UK a growing economy and I want the next Parliament to see the job through that the current government has started.”

About the General Election, Simon finally added: “Party apart, people in this day and age – when it comes to casting a vote – will, I think, look at the individuals who are their candidates as well as their party badges.”

The interview ended and Simon left the office, hurrying off to his next engagement. The purpose of the interview had been to look at his experiences as an MP representing his constituency. The extent and scope of his ambition seemed reassuringly modest and constituency-focused.

There are a few who would have liked him to be probed more fiercely about his links with the Countryside Alliance, about his voting record in this Parliament, about the UK government’s record on welfare. But that was not this interview’s goal. Mr Hart’s is the first of a number of interviews we want to have with General Election candidates before the starting whistle is blown and so-called ‘election-purdah’ begins.

Closer to the election, the questions will change to focus on the specific, as opposed to the general. It is at that time – when we put the same questions to all candidates on health, welfare and their ambitions for the next Parliament – that people can judge the candidates both on their policies and their personalities.