Addressing constituents’ concerns — the UK experience
Many Ghanaian Members of Parliament (MPs) find it difficult to touch base with their constituents thereby defeating the purpose of accountability and good governance.
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While some try as much as possible to do so, especially at a time when Parliament is on recess, many others simply fail to do same, raising concerns among many constituents.
UK parliamentary surgery
In the United Kingdom (UK), it is the practice by MPs to hold constituency surgeries which is a series of one-to-one meetings that an MP or other political officeholders may have with his/her constituents during which a constituent may raise issues of concern.
The issues usually are varied, ranging from local matters such as crime in the constituency, a request for intervention by the MP on behalf of the constituent regarding a personal issue to concerns of national policy.
Most of the time, the concerns of the constituent will be followed up by a caseworker or assistant and the surgery meetings are usually confidential and differ from town hall meetings which are open to many people at the same time.
It is up to the MP to decide whether or not to have any surgeries at all and if so, how many and in what locations. They are often held in local party offices, church halls or rooms in public houses.
Surgeries are traditionally held on Fridays or at weekends when MPs have returned from sittings of parliament and while some MPs surgeries are by appointment only, some are drop-ins and others a mix. An MP with a large constituency will sometimes hold surgeries in a wide range of locations during the summer recess.
I was impressed with the several constituency surgeries I participated in and the most recent one was more phenomenal.
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My experience
The Camberwell and West Norwood constituency in London where I mostly reside whenever in the UK has Helen Hayes as the MP but I mistakenly attended a constituency surgery at a place very close to Camberwell. It turned out that that constituency was part of the Camberwell and Peckham constituency where Harriet Harman is the MP.
After getting into the hall, I got my name on the registered list of ‘constituents’ and took my seat waiting to be called forward by one of the five caseworkers/assistants who were representatives of the MP to take my details and concerns for the attention of the MP.
When I was eventually called, the caseworker entered my details, including my London residential home address as it is normally done and proceeded to tell her what my concerns were.
After the encounter which lasted about 15 minutes, I left the hall and after about two weeks I received a letter from Ms Harman telling me she had forwarded my concerns to Ms Hayes who is rather my MP.
Obviously, my residential address indicated that the constituency in which I resided was not hers.
I was impressed that she took the pain to forward my concerns to my appropriate MP although I was not her constituent.
Happily, about two weeks after receiving that letter, another letter came through to me and lo and behold, it was from Ms Hayes, my MP, and the contents of the letter addressed my concerns to my satisfaction.
I hope that the Ghanaian MPs would adopt a similar approach of meeting their constituents through selected representatives to appreciate the real concerns of their constituents instead of doing so only during campaign periods.
