Meet Alister Jack. When Alister isn’t manning the thin blue line stopping illegal soft toys entering fortress Britain, he’s the tory candidate for Dumfries & Galloway. I’ve been holding his record as MP up to the light trying to make something out. This won’t take long: /1 
I’ll confess, when I started looking at this, I found myself upgrading my opinion of Mundell a fraction of a millimetre. You'll see what I mean. Join me as I wander through Jack’s Hansard record. /2
Quick disclaimer: speaking in the Commons is but 1 aspect, albeit an important one, of the job. But looking at how often they speak & what they say is instructive. An MP could make 500 pointless interventions or 50 powerful speeches so you need to look at the whole picture. /3
I’m not going to dwell on the times Jack raised real local issues in Dumfries, Stranraer, Dalbeattie, Castle Douglas, Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright or Gatehouse of Fleet. The record is so thin as to be almost transparent. I count 2 moments & 1 speech in his 868 days as an MP../4
Let’s look instead at the top speeches/interventions he’s made in 2019. Those times he rises to his feet, folk put their phones down and a respectful silence descends on the House. Behold Alister...hope you're ready for this: /5
1. On the 22nd of January Alister asked a question about what the minister was doing about terrorist stuff on social media. The answer from Ben Wallace, the minister responsible was, rather predictably 'an awful lot'. /6
2. OK- so the next one from the 12th of February is another softball on what another minister is doing. I presume he just gets passed a bit of paper and he reads it out. Not exactly Frost v Nixon. /7
3. 12th Feb- Alister reminds the house of the result of a referendum discussed every day for 3 years, & says if we don't get a deal then we'll have to simply leave without one. I guess a catastrophic outcome can't seem quite as daunting if one has £20 million stashed away. /8
4. Here Alister let's rip with a pro-brexit diatribe- the kind of tired drivel we've all heard a million times by now.
“How do we embrace the opportunities that freedom from the EU will give us?” I'd like to see him tell that to the farmers in D&G when the tap turns off. /9
“How do we embrace the opportunities that freedom from the EU will give us?” I'd like to see him tell that to the farmers in D&G when the tap turns off. /9
And 5? I’m afraid I was having a wee joke there. There is no 5. These weren’t the top speeches he made this year. These were *the only* times he spoke on the floor of the House of Commons in 2019, the last time being in February. /10
Hansard records a written statement in October in response to the Queen’s Speech. That’s yer lot for 2019 from local champion and now Secretary of State for Scotland, The “Right Honourable” Alister William Jack. /11
Dumfries & Galloway is a vast constituency & as a Dumfries boy, albeit in exile in Leith it is a constituency very close to my heart. D&G should demand a strong voice to raise local issues in the Commons, to government for investment & to protect the fragile rural economy /12
Voters in D&G are being asked to re-elect Alister Jack to “stand firm against #Indyref2”.The reality is, that even judging him by such a dismal criteria, he has failed to make an impact. He’s not even been a very accomplished, dedicated or prominent *unionist*! /13
D&G will decide but folk should know that predecessor & SNP candidate, @ArklessRichard spoke 257 times in 707 days whilst Jack has only spoken *61 times* in 868 days. It’s laughable to contend that Alister has been a stronger voice for the region. He’s been nigh on invisible. /14
@ArklessRichard Jack appears at rock bottom of the league table for contributions to Commons debate out of 59 Scottish MPs since the last election. 59th out of 59. This is the man Johnson chose to be Secretary of State for Scotland….an MP who followed the whip and kept his mouth shut. /15
That's all I've got. That's his entire record from this year in the Commons. It's down to the guid folk of Dumfries and Galloway to decide if they want this most inert of MPs keeping schtum on their behalf. But they deserve so, so much better. Vote @ArklessRichard ENDS
