Dear Ed, I AM baffled by the correspondence between George Galloway and Jim Fitzpatrick and would have thought both MPs would have more pressing concerns than bickering over whether to have a public meeting. No General Election has been called

Dear Ed,

I AM baffled and disappointed by the recent correspondence between MPs George Galloway and Jim Fitzpatrick (Advertiser Website Letters, June 18). It seems to show the extent to which many of our current MPs just don’t get it.

I would have thought that both MPs would have more pressing concerns than bickering over whether or not to have a public meeting, with an economy in dire straits, urgent reform needed to public life in the Commons and chronic knife crime on our streets.

After all, Galloway is supposed to be Respect MP for Bethnal Green & Bow. No General Election has been called.

He really ought to be representing the people who elected him in 2005, not eyeing up his next seat and spoiling for a fight with a Labour MP in a neighbouring constituency (soon to become Poplar & Limehouse) who has got nothing to do with him.

Why Jim would want to respond to these goads is beyond me. He is supposed to be a Government minister of state bringing all his relevant experience to the farming community, not trading heated words with the leader of one-half of a party that comes third in the local elections in his constituency and couldn’t even be bothered to contest the EU elections.

When Gordon Brown has the bottle to call the next General Election, I look forward to joining both men in debate.

But until then, there’s plenty of work for our MPs to be getting on with, although it is increasingly apparent that real reform will only be achieved with a change of Government.

Cllr Tim Archer (Con)

Blackwall & Cubitt Town

Tower Hamlets Council

Parliamentary Candidate, Poplar & Limehouse

Saundersness Road, Cubitt Town, Isle of Dogs