2nd July 2010

Good Competitions

How do you measure the success of your MP?

Whether it’s measuring hospital infections and school examination results, dangerous roads or dirty beaches, our lives are increasingly measured out in figures and arranged into tables.

But one group that seems to have escaped statistical scrutiny is MPs.  For a bunch of people very keen to measure the work of everyone else, they have been very reluctant to be measured themselves – except, that is, at the ballot box every five years.

To an extent you can see why MPs are wary.  The website theyworkforyou.com tries to compare the parliamentary records of MPs, but the site bases some of its rankings on pretty meaningless figures – like the number of Early Day Motions signed by an MP.  Some of these Motions, which are only really a public point of view, are very frivolous – like the one signed by seven MPs last week saluting the longest tennis match in Wimbledon’s history.  Do we want to measure our MPs on this basis alone?

I don’t think that should stop us having an attempt, however.  So, whilst I have been developing my new website, I have been trying to think of ways to measure how successful I have been  -or not – as your MP.

This is very tricky, as many of the things an MP does are difficult to turn into numbers: a query answered here, an individual problem solved there – this is what takes up much of my day.  Then there is the problem that a part of what an MP does – voting in the House of Commons – will only be supported by some people.

But there are some things that can be shown in numbers, like the average length of time it takes me to answer an email or letter (a figure I hope will come down rapidly in the next few weeks).  I could also show the amount of money I have won for the constituency, or the cuts I have manage to stop.

But how to measure those more difficult qualities – like how much I have been around the town, and how good my speeches in parliament have been?  An American business magazine recently tried to rank celebrities according to how much they are on the television and mentioned in Google.  Perhaps we could do something like that here.

I don’t know.  Al I think is that it would be useful to try.  So if you have any suggestions, please do get in touch.  I’d be really interested to know what you think.

St Christopher’s School

Speaking of measurement, I’d like to congratulate St Christopher’s School in Renfrew Road on receiving an excellent report from the schools’ inspectors, OFSTED.  St Christopher’s is a Pupil Referral Unit, which looks after children having a difficult time in mainstream school.  OFSTED said ‘the headteacher and all of the staff are doing an outstanding job’ – and I agree.  Well done St Christopher’s.

Mini-Olympics

And whilst we’re on issues of competition, I would like to salute the primary school children who took part in the mini-Olympics at Northgate on Wednesday.  It is so good to see competitive sport coming back to our schools, and I say that as someone who was always last in the race, lowest in the high jump and shortest in the long jump.  Children need to know how to lose as well as to win – and of course, how to take part.  So I look forward to more and more of these competitions, and to the national schools Olympics that will start in a year’s time.