Simon Danczuk’s Rochdale Fail

Yesterday, local news bulletins across the North West all ran with one top story: there had been a serious accident involving a bus close to Rochdale railway station. The double decker vehicle, working a First Manchester Route 17 service, had for some reason wandered off its normal route and had been driven at rather more than walking pace into a low railway overbridge, instantly shearing off the top deck bodywork.

Two passengers suffered significant injuries; many others escaped with cuts and bruises. Most, including the driver, were in a state of shock. Almost immediately, questions were asked: how did the driver manage to apparently lose her way? Was it true that the driver had only been with First Manchester since June, and had been driving unaccompanied for only a week? Why didn’t the driver see the low bridge warning sign?

Double deck buses have a height warning visible to the driver, and routes worked by them obviously avoid bridges with inadequate clearance. There are clear training issues for First Manchester, and the company was keeping as low a profile as it could manage after the incident. But the one person who could have leveraged his own profile to turn up the heat on the bus operator was notable by his silence.

Yes, Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk was away in London - understandable as Parliament is sitting this week - but, had he really been bothered about what was happening on his patch, he could have made himself aware of the crash. From there, he could have asked the necessary questions and at least made some kind of statement. So what was occupying his time instead?

One look at Danczuk’s Twitter feed tells you all you need to know: there was last-minute plugging of his preferred leadership candidate Liz Kendall, kicking Andy Burnham, whose candidature he doesn’t favour, telling his followers that he’d had a morning run around Battersea Park, the news that he went to see Rae Morris perform yesterday evening, and that he had sushi for lunch. But of the bus crash there was nothing.

Simon Danczuk is the first to call out anyone who disagrees with him as “Liberal” and “Metropolitan”. He’s equally fast to slag off Burnham for claiming not to be a typical Westminster politician, suggesting that he (Danczuk) is the one who isn’t part of the Westminster village. He incessantly plugs Rochdale’s pubs, restaurants and even pie shops, but in reality he’s all wind and piss.

Several of his constituents experienced the shock and trauma of a traffic accident yesterday, in circumstances where one might have expected the local MP to pitch in and hold First Manchester’s feet to the nearest fire until they come clean about what gives the appearance of being an inadequate driver training régime. Instead, Simon Danczuk, the great champion of all things Rochdale, was swanning around in London.

But the voters do know he’s exercising and eating healthily, so that’s all right, then.