Published: Thursday, 12th February, 2009 10:00am

Not the final word from Salter

by Newsdesk

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MARTIN Salter has meant different things to different people for much of his political career - love him or hate him, as the saying goes.

Like any politician, he has stood firm on issues close to his heart, and wavered and compromised on others, having to balance the facts on the ground in Reading with the Labour Party line and his own principles.

But he has been a good MP, with a much bigger personality than a typical backbencher, and maybe his willingness to speak out on any issue put to him damaged his chances of climbing the greasy pole of Government and getting anywhere near the Cabinet.

But he seemed happiest doing what he does.

Few people can have appeared in the pages of The Chronicle as many times in the past quarter-century, with his ability to get in a photo becoming the subject of a wealth of affectionate and not-so-affectionate comment from all and sundry over the years.

It is impossible to ignore the controversies - over the Iraq War, post office closures, Jane Griffiths and more besides - but his brash and unflappable knack for getting out of a tough spot always saw him through, nodding and smiling.

Mr Salter worked hard on all sorts of campaigns and with community groups and constituents with all sorts of problems, remembering names and faces and quirks with the best of them.

He left his mark on bigger issues too as a councillor and MP, helping get Reading Festival reinstated, launching the leisure ‘passport' scheme, keeping fishing on the agenda and being a driving force behind Reading FC's move from Elm Park to Madejski Stadium.

There's probably more than a year left of him as an MP, but Reading hasn't heard the last of Martin Salter.