LETTER: Will Maria now resign?

Despite the national trend for ‘Leave’ Lewes ignored her views. She is clearly out of touch with voters here, with around 70% against her in some areas.

At the EU count Maria Caulfield was all smiles when she thought ‘Leave’ was winning in this constituency, but she walked out when she heard the provisional result for Lewes, and was actually not present for the declaration. That left me to thank all the 90 odd people who had given up their night to run the election for the sake of democracy, which I gladly did.

Through your columns I am pleased to thank them again now. It’s a pity Maria Caulfield didn’t appear to respect what they had done. In my view ‘not listening’ is typical of her. I know of people who are receiving bland, meaningless and unhelpful replies over the huge problems rail commuters face daily, and replies appear to come from an office apparatchik as there is no personal message apparent. A lot of ‘I’ll pass your message on’ but no action. Trying to take the credit for other people’s ideas such as the Lewes-Uckfield rail link, or stopping the development of the Buckle car park and Meeching Down is also apparent.

Craving popularity, rather than doing the difficult thing, seems to be her stock in trade.

But Maria Caulfield needs to know that sitting behind Ministers in the House of Commons so that she appears on TV is frankly just not what she was elected to do. Her predecessor, Norman Baker, took up individual causes and wrote personally back to any constituent with problems, and solved most of them. Now we have a non-communicator who flounces out when things don’t go her way. That apparent churlishness is not what we expect of a political leader.

Councillor Peter

Gardiner

Liberal Democrat

Lewes District Councillor for Ouse Valley and Ringmer

Lewes Road, Ringmer