An end to apathy

December 15, 2005 6:53 AM

UK politics filter: WriteToThem.com tells you who your MP, MEPs, MSPs, and Welsh and London Assembly members are, and will send letters to them on your behalf. All you need is your postcode. It's a service of MySociety.org, the charity behind PledgeBank, where you can promise to do something worthwhile if other people join in (last seen here in June — please sign up to save Christopher Robbin). The charity's latest project, HearFromYourMP.com, lobbies MPs to provide regular email updates to their constituents, like this one.
posted by londonmark (10 comments total)

excellent post! Also see www.theyworkforyou.com, which lets you check your MPs' voting record.
posted by lowest.common.denominator at 7:49 AM on December 15, 2005

The easier you make it to send them a letter, the less import they'll place on it.
posted by smackfu at 7:54 AM on December 15, 2005

The MySociety.org sites are absolutely fantastic. I've used WriteToThem.com quite a few times to contact various reprasentatives, and always get a quick response. Well, I do nowadays, never heard a peep out of George Galloway when he was my MP (and by the looks of it, he's not exactly working hard in Parliament now he's down in Bethnal Green & Bow).

If you want to give them a hand, and aren't a coding type person, you can volunteer as a non-technical helper.

Is there a US equivalent to these sites, I wonder?
posted by jack_mo at 8:03 AM on December 15, 2005

The easier you make it to send them a letter, the less import they'll place on it.

Oop, should've previewed. In my experience, this isn't true - when I used to use traditional methods to contact my representatives, it would often take months to hear back, if at all.

For whatever reason, using WriteToThem.com, or its predecessor FaxYourMP.com, pretty much guarantees a response, and in my case, only the Tory MEPs have fobbed me off with a form letter signed by a researcher, the others always send proper replies. I managed to get one MEP to reconsider their views on an issue they were about to vote on, for what it's worth.
posted by jack_mo at 8:09 AM on December 15, 2005

jack_mo, thanks for the extra info on MySociety. I might just offer to lend a hand now.

I'm sorry you're stuck with George -- you might want to drum up some more support for this pledge!
posted by londonmark at 8:34 AM on December 15, 2005

jack_mo, thanks for the extra info on MySociety. I might just offer to lend a hand now.

I'm sorry you're stuck with George -- you might want to drum up some more support for this pledge!
posted by londonmark at 8:34 AM on December 15, 2005

sorry about the double post
posted by londonmark at 8:36 AM on December 15, 2005

In a related way, E-stonia:

In the summer of 2001, the Government created a web page Täna Otsustan Mina ("I Decide Today"). Ministries upload all their draft bills and amendments there, allowing people to review, comment on and make proposals on the legislative process as well as propose amendments to existing legislation. Ideas that gain substantial support will be reviewed by competent bodies. Approximately 5% of all ideas are used as amendments to bills.

posted by pots at 3:40 PM on December 15, 2005

Re: E-Stonia - You can really spot the new democracies can't you? They haven't quite worked out that it's all about making the people FEEL important... not actually listening to them.

Give them a few years...
posted by pompomtom at 4:36 PM on December 15, 2005

londonmark: I'm sorry you're stuck with George

Thankfully not any more - he was my MP, for the old Glasgow Kelvin constituency, now I have a different variety of idiot (Blairite). I'll pass that pledge on to my friends in the East End, though.
posted by jack_mo at 5:32 AM on December 16, 2005