This is what you have been writing to us about this week.
You might think Mr Baker loves the adrenalin rush of risk-taking when he lists hobbies such as motorcycling, scuba diving and sky diving.
There are two points of note which I think are relevant to his political performance over these 11 years and which we should all consider when we choose our MP; a) He always does everything he can to reduce the risk to himself (think parachutes and helmets) and b) these are not team games - they rely on others for safety but are not team pursuits.
So how does this affect us, his constituents?
Brexit
Mr Baker is keen to remind us that our system of democracy is not direct (see e.g. Switzerland) and so our votes don’t send him to Parliament to represent our views; they put him there to do as he pleases for five years.
The basic premise is that we put our trust in him to do the right thing by us. That is why the character of our MP is crucial.
My contention is that he’s happy to take thrilling risks with our livelihoods and lives because he feels comfortable with the risk versus his stake in the game.
When he takes a thrilling leap from the aeroplane he always takes two parachutes with him.
When he chaired the so called European ‘Research’ Group (ERG) he constantly agitated for taking the huge leap out of the EU, against not just the opposition parties but both his own party and against the judgement of the majority of his constituents.
I’m sure it’s thrilling for him. I’m sure he thinks the gamble will pay off. However, he takes his £82,000 golden parachute with him - a guaranteed salary many of his constituents can only dream of.
Of course, he’ll argue that at five-yearly intervals we get the opportunity to take that away from him but he also believes he’s in a safe seat. Are the risks of this thrilling game stacking up the same for you?
What thrilling game will Mr Baker the Risk Taker play with us next?
Pandemic
This is when I realised his preference for risky non-team games might explain what he’s up to now. At a time of national and international crisis, when we need to feel some degree of safety through confidence in government Mr Baker has decided to play Russian Roulette.
He’s set up his new agent-provocateur style group misleadingly called the Coronavirus Recovery Group.
This group is simply there to put pressure on the government to drop lock down. He must know that SAGE advises caution, or many more lives could be lost but he is prepared to risk this for his ideology of ‘libertarianism’.
I doubt that his own party regard him as a great team player as he is always willing to damage them in search of an ideological thrill.
He damaged his previous leader’s position and in the midst of this crisis he threatens his new leader.
More qualified commentators than I have watched his game with horror. Former Editor of the Spectator & Deputy Editor at the Sunday Telegraph Mathew d’Ancona recently wrote that the entire anti-Covid strategy “rests on a knife-edge” and that “Mr Baker has taken it upon himself to act as the wrecking ball conscience of his party, and, by extension, the nation”.
As one senior Conservative puts it: “Leaving the EU has left Steve with a Brexit-shaped hole in his life. He has to oppose something.”
On the basis that we send him to Westminster on trust, to do as he pleases, we need to ask ourselves if we share his love of risk at the same level.
Personally, I believe he has the right as a self-styled ‘libertarian’ to play Russian Roulette with his own livelihood and life.
He does not have the right to point the gun at us.
Mike Duckett, High Wycombe
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