The work of a constituency MP demands a great deal from one person, who is simultaneously expected to deal with some of the most difficult social issues in the lives of their constituents, appear statesperson-like in the House of Commons, and hold their own with the great and the good in all sorts of civic settings. Despite the many failings of a small number of MPs (some of them touched on in my blog) to focus on these roles and instead turn the job into a route to earn lots of extra money, we should have a great deal of respect for most of the 650 men and women who represent us in Westminster. It would be rather disturbing if an MP was to meet with a number of his or her constituents and tell them that it was time they stopped whinging, that he or she would be much more impressed if they could help him or her be a better MP and resolved some of their own problems. This sort of approach,  once it became public, would hasten the end of a political career, no matter how promising. It is for this reason that some political reformers want the right to recall their MP from Parliament and in effect to terminate their contract. Some MPs are supportive of the recall mechanism, but a large number of them, particularly those who are not as hard working as some of their colleagues will work incredibly hard to ensure we never get our recall button.

If most constituency MPs work hard and deserve our support, the work of a Minister is even more difficult. On top of their constituency responsibilities, they have a departmental brief which places an enormous workload onto an already busy diary. To make a mark as a Minister depends on delivering policies and statements that are seen to make a real difference in the area they are responsible for. Just like the local MP who might tell his constituents to ‘get a life’ or pull their socks up and then face the wrath of his constituents, if a business minister was to tell the CBI or IOD that they need to stop belly aching and get on with producing the jobs and wealth that businesses are intended to, his or her career as a Minister would be rather shorter than the end of the same week. However some Ministers seem to relish offending and upsetting the sector they are responsible for. Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove and Theresa May are examples of Ministers whose career appears to have benefited from upsetting those on welfare, teachers and Police Officers. However if Vince Cable was to try the same trick with the business community, I suspect he would be on the back benches relatively quickly. The priorities of any organisation can be measured by how they treat the people they engage with. A Supermarket that sells poor products is clearly not interested in a long term relationship with customers, a jewellery chain that sells ‘crap’ is bound to go out of business. A Government that treats GPs, Teachers, people on benefits, Police Officers, etc badly is reaching out to a certain sort of voter.

One Minister who has signalled his desire to join the A team of the Government and extend the parts of the community that the party has picked a fight with, is a chap called Nick Hurd. He is the Minister for Civil Society, which means the Minister for Charities. He recently met with a group of small charities and was asked how small charities could attract the support of government. His response included the following comments: “There are plenty of people whingeing,” he said. “Don’t join that queue. It’s not going to get you anywhere. Try to be part of the solution.” He explained that the government was keen to provide support for charities and to “get as much value out of the sector as we possibly can”, but it was limited by lack of funds and its commissioning structure. He went on “It is really hard because the public sector is terribly bureaucratic and very risk-averse, and its processes are clunky,” he said. “We’re starting with a public service market dominated by a few big private sector firms and we’re trying to change that, but we’re nowhere near where we want to be.”

It is clear that so far Minister Hurd has not been asked to clear his desk, so this signals the likely priorities of the Conservative hierarchy. They either ‘agree with Nick’ or else they are think so little about charities that they frankly don’t care. Just as we don’t have a recall button for MPs, there is no way as voters to persuade the Prime Minister to sack his Minister. Unlike the evident influence of certain organisations such as the CBI and IOD! I wrote yesterday about the opportunity for charities to engage with MPs over the lobbying Bill. I then did as I promised and contacted all 14 Sussex MPs who voted for the Bill. I contacted 7 by twitter, 1 by facebook and 6 by email. Of those I received one dismissive email response from one MPs office, and have had a few defensive tweets from another. It is still early days, but I will continue to encourage each of them to agree to meet local charities in their constituencies. Meanwhile we have a clear indication of how at least one Minister sees the charitable sector!