Hendon constituency deserves better than Ameet Jogia

Ameet Jogia

Over the last few weeks, I've seen an ever increasing number of communications from the Conservative candidate for Hendon, Ameet Jogia. I have a few MP's over the years. For many years, we had a sensible and rather decent Conservative in the shape of John Gorst. Gorst was pro business and a good constituency MP. He was replaced in 1997 by Labour's Andrew Dismore. Dismore was a hard working MP. I was not keen on him, as I felt he was a slippery individual, who admitted that when he campaigned to replace Gorst in 1997, promising to retain Edgware General Hospital, he knew that a Labour government would close it anyway. He was replaced in 2010 by Conservative Matthew Offord, who won by 103 votes. Offord built up a decent majority over the next few elections. Offord put a lot of work into cultivating conservative religious voters who opposed things such as same sex marriage. Whilst Gorst and Dismore were hard working MP's in the constituency, Offord is largely invisible most of the time. I was not disappointed to see him stand down. 

Ameet Jogia struck me as an odd choice. He's a councillor in Tory councillor Harrow. I'd never heard of him before he was selected. I felt he was probably the weakest of the three choices on offer. He has done nothing to dispel that view. From what I've seen, he is an uber NIMBY. He has campaigned against McDonalds opening in Mill Hill. Given that MP's have no role in planning I found this rather bizarre. Apparently McDonalds are hotbeds of crime and anti social behaviour, if you believe his leaflets. He has also campaigned heavily against the Hendon Hub and the Edgware Broadwalk redevelopment. Not having been involved in Barnet politics until he was selected, he is either unaware that both schemes were dreamed up when the Tories ran Barnet. He is putting the boot into Labour, who simply carried on the policies of the previous Tory adminstration. Either Jogia doesn't know the history of the various schemes, which is rather poor from a candidate, or he's deliberately misleading people about the policies of the local Tories. Neither is particularly good.

I had a look at Jogia's website to see what he had to say about other issues. I was not impressed. On "investment in local businesses" he says "Our investment in local businesses will also protect local businesses and jobs from rising prices and jobs from rising costs and a changing high street in an effort to ensure that our community shops in Edgware, Mill Hill, Hendon, and Burnt Oak remain on our high streets and encourage residents to shop local." This is highly misleading. The Tories announced a massive rise in the minimum wage, which will add huge costs to local businesses. Whilst I support the idea of paying decent wages, many companies are on their knees, due to high energy prices. Adding more costs to business is going to close many companies. 

Regular readers will know that this blog champions environmental policies. On these Jogia says "It is widely accepted that bad air is a huge risk to health, that’s why over the last 13 years the UK has become a world leader in becoming one of the most carbon-neutral countries in the world.

However, we mustn't push on with the net zero agenda at the risk of hard-working people who cannot afford to pay the price for other countries, such as China, polluting our planet. That’s why I am fervently against the ULEZ expansion in London." This shows a man who wants to face both ways at the same time. He accepts that poor air quality is bad for health, but refuses to do anything to address it. Whilst I was against the ULEZ expansion, it is now simply too late to reverse it. Most people have already got rid of polluting cars in London.

On the issue of policing, he demonstrates that he doesn't know our local area. He says "The Mayor has hiked up his precept this year but we are still seeing our residents in places like Brockley Hill having to pay for security because the Mayor is failing to protect our towns and suburbs." Whilst it is very touching that our candidate cares about voters in Brockley Hill, it is not in the constituency of Hendon, it isn't even in the Borough of Barnet. 

On the issue of transport, he again shows his lack of local knowledge. He claims "If we want to put people on public transport we first need to build the infrastructure to enable this. To get from Mill Hill to Chipping Barnet via car is a 15 min journey but to use public transport it is nearly an hour long." Clearly not a bus user. I regularly get the 384 bus from Mill Hill to Barnet to watch Hadley FC. It takes 10 minutes from the top of my road (Glendor Gardens stop). I will be getting that tonight. 

On education he says "We want to deliver new skills for local children to give them the best possible start in life and with a record £123,093,515 funding for Hendon schools, we are funding schools at their highest levels in history." What he doesn't say is that due to high inflation, every school in Barnet is struggling to balance their books. I am the chair of a charity that funds a local school. I see the challenges at the coalface. It is all very well talking about rebuilding schools, but if they can't afford to pay experienced teachers, then the school will be in crisis.

I have taken the above quotes from his website -www.jogia.uk/ourplan

In my opinion, Hendon deserves better than this. There are many big challenges facing us locally and nationally. Having an MP who seems to have no positive policies, doesn't know the Borough and thinks the way to win is to say all things to all people is a recipe for disaster. If you want to know just how vacuous he is, if you click his "My Plan" page on his website, you don't get a plan, you get a questionaire - www.jogia.uk/form/hendonmyplan - It sums him up. His plan is to tell you anything that you want to hear, so you'll get his vote.