An interview with Gordon Henderson

Last week two of our local newspapers interviewed me. Both featured in this week's editions and the content was pretty much the same. I thought it was worth replicating one of the interviews here because I think it pretty well sums up why I want to become the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. The text below is the full interview, however, it was edited into a shorter version for the newspaper...

Tell us a bit about yourself

My political opponents could never accuse me of being a Tory toff because I come from a humble working class background. I was born in Brompton Military Hospital, which makes me both a Man of Kent and a life-long Gillingham supporter! I grew up on a council estate and I went to state schools until I was 16, when I started working for Woolworth’s.

Why do you want to be an MP

It’s actually my background that makes me want to become an MP. I believe that not enough MPs understand what life is like in the real world. Too many of them have been in politics all their working lives and have never had experience in business nor worked on the shop floor.

I think that this lack of contact with the realities of working life was a contributory factor to leading some MPs to believe they were entitled to abuse the parliamentary expenses system. I want to be different and I believe my life experience will help me do that.

How has Sheppey changed over the years?

I have lived on Sheppey for 26 years and during that time I have seen lots of changes.

For instance, Islanders have gained a crossing to the mainland, but lost their general hospital. We have seen an increase in jobs at the Island’s two additional prisons, but have seen jobs lost in many other industries, including the steelworks and the docks. Tesco’s has gone from strength to strength, but Sheerness High Street has seen a number of established shops disappear, including my beloved Woolworths.

Is Sheppey a better place for all these changes? I’ll leave my fellow Islanders to make up their own minds about that!

If you had a magic wand what would you change?

I would first ensure that every person of working age in Sittingbourne & Sheppey has a job and that every family has a decent home. I would then wave my wand again and give our pensioners a decent pension. A third wave and I would improve the roads infrastructure and ensure that every motorist had access to a modern electric car. Thereafter, there are so many things I would like to change I would suffer repetitive strain injury to my right arm!

What are your priorities for the constituency?

Setting priorities is a somewhat foolish game, because individual back bench MPs have limited power to influence policy and I simply don’t believe in promising to do something that I cannot achieve. However, I do want to do something improve the lot of pensioners, so if I am lucky enough to be elected I will be lobbying hard to have the basic state pension re-linked to earnings as soon as possible.