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No 1131517
Proventus
Help-
Writing a letter to your MP
Getting your message across. MP’s constituents may be concerned about an issue but never make their voice heard. MP’s work for you, backbenchers should be the voice of the people not only their party.
When contacting your MP, a brief handwritten or printed letter is most effective.
Make a single coherent point.
Give an example of how legislation/or an issue is affecting you personally.
MP’s are more likely to respond to issues directly affecting their constituents.
Rather than just stating your point of view finish your point by giving an instruction to your MP such as;
- Asking them to write to a minister on your behalf.
- If its an health issue to contact the chief executive of your local PCT.
- If its a social service issue to contact the chief executive of social service.
Does it help?
The more your MP hears about an issue, the more likely they are to take action.
Some MP’s may take the attitude that if the party they represent already has a position on a particular issue their job is to represent that party's line to you. The more letters they receive on an issue, the more likely they are to do more background research and develop an opinion of their own.
Are you an expert?
Not many have a broad experience of any disease. Being personally affected by a disease in any capacity, you will often know more about a particular aspect of symptoms, care and support than most others.
General tips
All MP’s have different ways of organising their time and their work. But there are some general tips to remember:
- Keep letters, phone calls and meetings short and to the point.
- A secretary, caseworker or researcher will often be the first point of contact. These people decide which letters need to be seen by your MP. It’s useful to get them on your side!
- Always be polite and courteous.
- You need to make it clear that you are a constituent, and the MP needs to be able to send a reply.
Their response
The response you may receive will be of one of two types:
- A personal answer to questions with the promise of action.
- Generic -
the language of the reply will seem to toe the party line and will quote from official statements. - Read the letter carefully to see if the questions you asked in have been answered satisfactory. If not, write back to the MP requesting clarification to the questions you raised. if you are unhappy with part or all of their response, state this clearly but politely.
- Many time the second letter is the one that the MP actually reads. They may realise some thing is wrong with their generic response and that you are dissatisfied and diligent enough to respond to what may appear to be their indifference.
Inform Us
The more we know the more we can say -