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I too am a constituent and follow my MP’s progress with interest and closely.

You must admit it comes across as suspicious when she asks the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency, the effects on that constituency of his Department’s policies since 1997.

She asked it last week. Sounds like preparation for an election to me. I think finding out this info after 13 years is a bit late in the day.

Of course, not all the problems faced by Hackney are down to Diane not doing enough, but I also feel she has hardly been the voice of her constituents’ concerns in this matter, when she should be.

I like her as a person, but after 23 years as our MP I sense her enthusiasm has gone.

I am not one of these constituents who is bothered about where her son went to school or her expenses claims, I am only concerned about what she does to raise awareness of the issues and challenges the people of Hackney face.

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To allay your suspicions, I’m a constituent of Ms Abbott’s and I cannot thank her enough for her support and years of hard work on my behalf, including securing a debate in parliament and a ministerial investigation into the affairs I had contacted her about.

Still – if you view all support of Ms Abbott as suspicious – you won’t be swayed by this, Mike.

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Ms Abbott’s concern is further demonstrated by her arranging the debate reported here – which highlights her commitment whilst drawing media attention to this failure.

Her approach is in stark contrast to that of our Council who recently used Hackney Today to make [...] claims about the employment benefits of the Olympics. This in the run up to the election.

In a supplement called “A Host for 2012″ Jules Pipe makes the following claims: “…0ver 400 people have been placed in jobs..” and “Ways into Work programme got more than 700 people into work…” and Mr Pipe also states that Olympics jobs for local people is one of his key priorities – inviting us to judge him on his success or failure in delivering on this promise.

In order to do so we need more facts, but Mr Pipe fails to tell us – amongst some very clever wording – what Ms Abbott has – that only one apprenticeship has gone to a Hackney resident. Does this lack of opportunity for Hackney residents not concern Mr Pipe ? Does he know about it ? Why does he present this as a success ?

The real problem here is that as locals we are denied the opportunity to benefit from the Olympics because our concerns about the lack of benefits are not raised by our council. Instead Mr Pipe presents this failure as a success – presumably because he hopes to benefit from such “spin” in the elections.

Soon enough the Olympics will have come and gone. We must hold Mr Pipe to account about his claims on jobs for locals. The actions of Ms Abbott have made this easier for us.

It is well worth taking a close look at Mr Pipes claims and challenging him on them. And a close look too at our council’s website – where not a single Olympics vacancy is listed.

So – how many Olympics jobs have gone to locals, Mr Pipe ?

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My only question is …. why wasn’t Diane Abbott listening to us five years ago?

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