I find Simon Jenkins’ article somewhat specious (I don’t want to hear MPs’ personal testimonies in parliament. Issues like assisted dying are for heads, not hearts, 7 January). Many MPs say that it is their personal experience that brings them into politics, as is the case with my local MP, Cheadle’s Tom Morrison. His decision to enter politics was driven by his personal experience of the threat of his family becoming homeless when he was a child.
I see him regularly, he lives round the corner. He shops where I do, drives on the roads I do, travels on the trains I do and uses the same hospital I do. His personal experiences do make him a better MP and I want to hear more of them, not just from him but from all MPs, so as to reduce the number of times I shout at the radio or TV: “What kind of world do these people live in?”
Geoffrey Thomas
Cheadle, Greater Manchester
