A sad juxtaposition between David Cameron’s defence of liberal values and the Times’s interview (£) with Paul Maynard, the Tory MP for Blackpool North & Cleveleys. Maynard – who has cerebral
palsy – describes his experiences in what ought to be a bastion of British decency:
A Labour MP, speaking to the paper (£), seems to dismiss the idea that this was just the usual Commons rough and tumble:“Mr Maynard knew that people could be unkind, perhaps unconsciously. Nevertheless his worst experience in Parliament came as a shock. A few months later he stood up in the chamber to defend the Government’s decision to cut the Child Trust Fund. Mr Maynard admits that it was a controversial issue but still could not believe what happened. Each time that he lifted his head, his eyes were drawn to MPs across from him. ‘They were pulling faces at me,’ he says, illustrating what he saw by lifting his hands to his cheeks and stretching the skin up and down to distort his face. ‘Really exaggerated gesticulations — really exaggerated faces.’ He cannot say with certainty that they were making fun of the cerebral palsy. ‘But it felt like it,’ he says. Mr Maynard ‘soldiered on’ for another 24 minutes before sitting down ‘shattered and emotionally exhausted’. Afterwards, he slipped out of the chamber and went to his office to calm down. ‘It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It was quite clear that some of them had decided I needed a bit of roughing up.'”
Whatever the case, it can only be hoped that the Labour party – and any relevant Parliamentary authorities – look into this matter, and deal with it accordingly. Schoolyard bullying is contemptible enough when it takes place in the schoolyard, let alone in the Houses of Parliament.“But a Labour MP who was present at the debate, on the abolition of the Child Trust Fund, confirmed that the abuse had taken place. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she described a ‘handful’ of colleagues mocking Mr Maynard by making faces, adding that it was ‘utterly unacceptable’ and that many politicians on the Labour benches were muttering in disgust.”
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