Since the election I remember being asked three times to appear on Radio Berkshire. Once was a request to comment on the expansion of Heathrow. This is a topic of interest to my constituents. I had to comment within minutes of the Heathrow report being published so I had not been able to get hold of a copy let alone read it. I have regularly worked on the issues of the airport, especially noise, but there have been no interviews about any of this.It was not difficult explaining I could not comment properly on something I had not read, but it was not informative or helpful radio for listeners.I tried to take the interview in the direction of what I have been doing on living with Heathrow.
The other two requests have been to discuss dead Conservatives/UKIP members who were not local figures. The topics were ones which no one else has written or talked to me about, so I declined. Radio Berkshire assure me there have been other invitations and they have apparently used clips of me in Parliament on other topics. I have asked them to send me details as they were not specific.
Radio Berkshire did come to see me at Westminster to discuss the coverage the BBC gives to England, and to Wokingham and Berkshire.I have written and spoken a lot about this, and raised it in the Commons. I continue to run my campaign of speaking for England. They tell me they do wish to take the issue of England seriously so I look forward to talking about that on their radio shows in due course.
Radio Berkshire similarly ignores the work I do on affordable homes, tax reductions to boost take home pay, improving local roads and transport, flooding and the many other local matters I highlight on this site and in my constituency work.They have a strange sense of the agenda and priorities of a busy local MP judging by their interview requests.