Jim Dowd MP

[catfordlad]

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10176/ ... _and_penge

Has spoken in 10 debates in the last year — well below average amongst MPs.
Has received answers to 16 written questions in the last year — average amongst MPs.
Replied within 2 or 3 weeks to a low number of messages sent via WriteToThem.com during 2008, according to constituents.

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Dowd is truly bone idol. Fingers crossed next year we shall have an MP who truly represents his or her constituents.

[gerispringer]

Has anyone ever seen him in the constituency? Has he ever been round canvassing votes? The only time I met him he was incredibly rude when asked a difficult question.

[robbieduncan]

Has anyone ever seen him in the constituency? Has he ever been round canvassing votes? The only time I met him he was incredibly rude when asked a difficult question.

He doesn't need to. He could take the whole election off in the south of France and he'd still get in. The 30% of people who vote should start to bear his performance over the last 5 years in mind rather than voting for him because they always have done.

Or more accurately voting Labour no mater who the put up for the seat or what their policies for the upcoming parliament are.

[leenewham]

It may not happen if we had voted for PR.

Which is probably why the biggest two parties and the press wanted to keep things as they were.

[SquashedCommuter]

Or more accurately voting Labour no mater who the put up for the seat or what their policies for the upcoming parliament are.

If Labour put someone's pet cat up for this seat it would most likely get elected here.

Labour are extremely intelligent people who know exactly how to brainwash and retain their cult followers.

[Robin Orton]

Has anyone ever seen him in the constituency?

Yes, several times. To my knowledge, he's attended a number of local events.

[Eagle]

I have seen him twice in real life. On two occasions at the now defunct Catford Beer Festival.

[SquashedCommuter]

Looking at it from a different point of view, many politicians would probably serve us better by doing nothing. They tend to do little else but suppress and deceive us.

Here is an interesting example from a Liberal Democrat politician:

In July 2006, to the surprise of many people, Lord Phillips of Sudbury announced his intention to resign... He criticised the “cascades” of legislation that the Labour government had introduced:

“It is seriously counter-productive. No society can absorb a net increase of statute law of eight or nine thousand pages a year.”

You can email dowdj@parliament.uk.

[Tim Lund]

Looking at it from a different point of view, many politicians would probably serve us better by doing nothing. They tend to do little else but suppress and deceive us.

Here is an interesting example from a Liberal Democrat politician:

In July 2006, to the surprise of many people, Lord Phillips of Sudbury announced his intention to resign... He criticised the “cascades” of legislation that the Labour government had introduced:

“It is seriously counter-productive. No society can absorb a net increase of statute law of eight or nine thousand pages a year.”

You can email dowdj@parliament.uk.

Thanks you very much for drawing this to my attention. It's a point I've made from time to time, e.g. here

[SquashedCommuter]

You can see a full list of how Jim Dowd voted here.

Note:

Voted strongly against fewer MPs in the House of Commons



Other points that people may wish to be aware of before voting:

Voted strongly for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas

Voted very strongly for the Iraq war

Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war

Voted very strongly against raising the threshold at which people start to pay income tax

Voted strongly against a transparent Parliament

Voted strongly for introducing ID cards

[Eagle]

What constitutes a STRONG vote , as opposed to a vote.

He was also sighted coming out of Lewisham Hospital just prior to Christmas.

[SquashedCommuter]

What constitutes a STRONG vote , as opposed to a vote.

There are usually multiple votes for each issue so this refers to the frequency of voting for or against a particular issue as opposed to the strength of an individual vote (for which you can only vote for or against or abstain).

If you click on the "Source" link to the right of each individual issue on the page, you can see a percentage showing how strongly for or against the issue Jim Dowd voted and detail on how this was calculated.

[Eagle]

Thanks SQ for explanation.

I know strange how a constituency that used to be a marginal in not too distant past is now just a nod in for Keir Hardy's party.

Did someone mention he had family connections with a certain developer , who is more renown locally for destruction than construction.

Surely the Politburo of LLP decide whether he stands.

[Eagle]

Having had the enquiry at great expense at least we should have their findings.

I expect Jim was only a small cog in the wheel and bit hard to blame him for the man from Fettes,

[Robin Orton]

'Jim Dowd and your Local Labour team called' according to a card which I found on my doormat shortly after lunch. (Untypically, I was having a brief post-prandial nap when they called - no sign of them when I got to the door.) 'We want to know your views and what matters to you.' No mention of the general election of course. But I wonder whether it suggests that Jim is indeed going to stand again?

[alywin]

To be fair, Jim Dowd did actually take part in a debate recently, in relation to the trains mess at London Bridge (or not at LB, in this particular case).

However, in my early days on the forum - whether it was before or after the last general election I'm not sure, although it may have been before, when I was keen to find out something about the person into whose constituency I had suddenly been parachuted - I thought I came across someone implying something particularly negative about Jim Dowd, but I can't find it now. I don't think it can have been related to the MPs' expenses scandal, because all I can find on that is that he claimed the London supplement like a lot of other MPs. Is it perhaps related to the Purelake problem? Alternatively, did I completely misunderstand the situation?

[hazy]

His partner, fellow mp Janet Anderson claimed London home expenses on the home she shared with j dowd which he already claimed expenses for - or something. that may be what you're thinking of although there are other reasons, imho, that it's time he stepped down

[Manwithaview1]

His partner, fellow mp Janet Anderson claimed London home expenses on the home she shared with j dowd which he already claimed expenses for - or something. that may be what you're thinking of although there are other reasons, imho, that it's time he stepped down

She also brought in the free tv licences for the over 75s.

[somerandombloke]

While that might make some of the denizens of this place happy it dont make up for the massive overclainimg of expensess she did not just London home expenses either.

[alywin]

His partner, fellow mp Janet Anderson claimed London home expenses on the home she shared with j dowd which he already claimed expenses for - or something. that may be what you're thinking of although there are other reasons, imho, that it's time he stepped down

Ah, perhaps that was it, but in that case one or the other is at fault, but not both, presumably?