Salter personifies everything that is wrong about contemporary politics. With his 'mockney' accent and childish wit he appears charming. Many apolitical constituents who contact him go away superficially pleased. After all he invariably tells them what they want to hear.
But he deals with political issues with a low cunning that is inversely proportional to his real understanding of anything other than his own political advantage. He cleverly positions himself 'loyal but no robot'. Yet the dupes of the Reading Labour Party seemed to have missed the fact that he has been more loyal to the Government than Jane Griffiths, the MP for Reading East they deselected before the last election officially for being too Blairite. Don't believe me? Check out the voting records on the Publicwhip web site.
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Hypocrisy and spin are his political tools. In no particular order lets look at some cases;
Fox hunting
Despite being the self-styled parliamentary spokesman for angling Salter was a vocal opponent of fox hunting, and made much political capital out of being something of a hate figure for the Countryside Alliance.But just lately this story has taken a bizarre new twist. Unfortunately Martin was not first in queue when the brains were being handed out. He seems to be genuinely surprised that the League Against Cruel Sports et al have, now that fox hunting has been banned, turned their attention to shooting. It would seem that Martin completely missed the fact that for the League the issue was never about bashing toffs (which is why Martin jumped on the anti-fox hunting bandwagon), but about saving cuddly animals. Thick as he is Martin can now, apparently, see where this is going. If the anti-blood sports brigade get their way and shooting is banned, which sport is coming next? Have you any idea how easy angling sabbing would be?
So principled as ever Martin's done a volte-face. Please see for example this report in, of all things, Farmers Weekly. (By the way before anyone jumps to any conclusion about my views on any of these pastimes I should make it clear that I don't participate in them, but, being a liberal, neither do I wish to ban them. Sorry if that's unfashionable.)
Iraq
He claims to this day (sorry, this link is now broken; draw your own conclusions as to why the article has been removed from the Salter website) to have opposed the war in Iraq. I had invited readers to look carefully at the weasel words 5 sentences from the end of the linked article, which I believe to have been published in the Reading Chronicle on 17 July 2003 (as far as I can tell their web site doesn't have it either, but it should be available in dead tree form in Reading Central Library). In fact he absented himself from the crucial vote.
Student tuition fees
Recently he rolled out the same trick again, declaring early his opposition to top up tuition fees for university students. He actually lobbied individual colleagues in a rather surprising manner, before caving in and voting with the Government. But this time the Guardian reports he seems to have over played his hand, earning himself the nickname kipper. Showing Martin the courtesy he rarely allows others you'll find his view of this story at here. Unfortunately, whoever sets up his web site got bored before the end of the headline.
The deselection of Jane Griffiths
I was going to make this another bullet point but frankly it is a long story, and the truth is now so shrouded in claim and counter claim that the facts will probably never be clear.What I do know is that Jane always was endearingly bonkers (and I say that as a friend -at one time quite a close friend), and that did not stop Salter et al (those Jane now refers to as the 1970's men) supporting her for the Labour nomination back in 1995, when yours truly had a hand in introducing a highly credible outsider as a prospective candidate.
Jane's subsequent parliamentary career was entirely consistent with her record as a Reading councillor and Labour activist up to that point, and what exactly went on between Jane, Salter and the rest behind the scenes I cannot say as by that time I had seen enough of the Reading Labour party to want nothing more to do with it. Jane alleges that it was her attempt to intervene to stop actual corruption at the Borough council, but I really will have to let her speak for herself, because I do not wish to follow in the footsteps these 3 idiots who managed to lose a libel action to Salter which essentially turned on the question 'is Martin Salter a bully?' Suffice it to say one of them became the MP for Reading East and another attempted to become leader of the Tory party (yes truth is stranger than fiction).
However, as my pockets are not as deep as a Tory MP's so I'd rather avoid the writ in the first place. Please see Jane's blog for more.
PS.'Prolier than thou' Salter, it should be noted, spent 3 years at Sussex University in the 1970's living on the relatively generous grants of the period, and, of course, not having to pay a penny in fees. He dropped out just before his final examinations. Pity he didn't pass -how different things might have been.