Jim Dowd MP - A Visit to his Surgery

On 8 December 2012 we visited Mr Dowd at his constituent's surgery in Stanstead Road, Forest Hill. I wanted to introduce him to my daughter and to meet me, to see how sane I am in person! He seemed surprised when I offered him my hand to shake and I was left with the impression that he wanted to reach for the sanitiser. Apparently he feels safest behind a large desk, where he doesn't have to get too close to his constituents and can give the appearance of authoritarian superiority. As I was later to read, this is not a man who believes in the transparency of government and we proles are better off knowing our place as we are too stupid to comprehend matters of national importance.

I ended up feeling sorry to have subjected my daughter to the company of a man who has all the personal warmth of a Siberian winter. The first thing she did was grab a toy bus from his desk - a squeezy bus made of some sort of foam. Mr Dowd yelled at her to put it down and she came and hid herself in my coat for the rest of the visit. Evidently he does not like to share HIS toys, despite the fact it appeared to have been a cheap, freebie desk toy given to him by some company.

Mr Dowd said there was nothing he could do for me, and I had done the right thing about our ongoing police surveillance by making a complaint to the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission). I told him that there was indeed something he could do about policing in the broader sense, and I was going to tell him that I have found other people going through the same thing, complaining about their treatment on the internet. However, he was not prepared to extend to me the common courtesy of LISTENING.

Now, it is not at all true that there is nothing Mr Dowd can do. For a start, he can work on his manners and try to LISTEN to his constituents. If he was prepared to do some research (or even have me do it for him) he could ask questions in parliament, or even press for an inquiry into policing in this country. People appear to be being harassed because of what they know and who they are not because they have committed any crime at all.

But Mr Dowd does not care. If you Google his name, you will see on most official sites that Mr Dowd uses photographs of himself from when he was much younger. Amongst the other photos I saw when I did an image search were Mr Dowd campaigning for the British Heart Foundation and an Eat 5 a Day campaign. The only thing I can imagine Jim Dowd eating 5 of a day is free lunches. When it comes to Useless Eaters it seems that this term does not only refer to the proletariat.

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