I'm beginning to feel increasingly sorry for Simon Wright, the Lib-Dem member of parliament for Norwich South. When he won the seat in 2010, he must have thought that his new career would be one of sticking up for his electorate against the nasty government, and being a populist champion of the people from the opposition benches. I suspect that even in is most feverish nightmares he never dreamt that he would actually be part of one of the governing parties, and unfortunately - for him, and for the good people of Norwich South - he just isn't up to the job. At the time when the city needs a big-hitting MP, we have somebody who is quite frankly an embarrassment. He flip-flopped over tuition fees, and is doing the same over the NHS. He doesn't seem to appear much in the local press, and it's as if no-one wants to have anything to do with him. I'm betting that in the next general election - if he's not de-selected - he'll finish fourth. Things are that bad.
I suppose what's happening to Simon is symptomatic of what's been happening to the Lib-Dems over the past few years. It's almost as if they've been suffering from political penis-envy, desperately trying to hold in their hands the thing - the power - they've desired for so long, but once they have it in their grasp, they don't know what to do with it, or how to use it. Deep down, they must be craving for the good old days of opposition, when they could stand on the sidelines and heckle. Not long ago, the Lib-Dems ran the city council; now there's just a small rump of them in an outlying ward, and they hold their meetings in a broom cupboard at City Hall.
And somehow, Simon Wright finds himself the MP here, hapless and beleaguered, with virtually no means of support, and nobody really giving a stuff about him.
As I said, I'm beginning to feel quite sorry for him.
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