My jaw dropped at the MP’s speech on awards evening
by Mark Johnson

Last night I attended the wonderful North Devon Voluntary Services awards evening. It was a celebration of the humanity and compassion of so many in our community who do so much to help others in desperate need.

At the end of the evening our local MP, Selaine Saxby, was given the opportunity to speak and my jaw dropped to the floor when she claimed she had had a transformative experience when visiting the Dilkhusa Hotel in Ilfracombe where the refugees were being housed. Was this the same Selaine Saxby who was pictured in the media standing in front of this hotel saying it needed to close so that Ilfracombe could get its hotel rooms back, whilst casually ignoring the boarded up hotel next door? 

The breathtaking contrast of this utter hypocrisy with the honest endeavours of so many wonderful volunteers made me shudder.

She brought to mind the Groucho Marx quote “those are my principles, if you don’t like them…well, I have others”.

North Devon is full of wonderful people who do so many great things, role models for the best in honesty, ethics and values, perhaps we need to have an MP who is capable of representing those qualities.

Mark Johnson
Braunton