Have you ever contacted your MP?

[AnneLovesGilbert]

I write to mine from time to time when the government does something that annoys me and he’s always prompt in replying and I find him reasonable. I haven’t had to ask for his help with anything but I suppose I would if there was something I thought he could help with.

I was listening to the radio this morning about the huge increase in case work MPs have and the sorts of things they’re asked to be involved with - healthcare, school places which are fair enough, but also neighbourhood disputes about hedges and parking, and people contesting parking tickets.

One of them said people are using their MP’s office like a stand in for citizens advice.

I was really surprised but I don’t know many people who’ve said they’ve ever contacted theirs never mind given them a hard time because their neighbour’s annoyed them.

I've written to my parliamentary member (well emailed them) twice. Once I got a written reply, typed, but with a hand written short sentence added, and once got an email reply.

Both were prompt. Not surprisingly given they were both about party matters, and I'm a member of the same party as they are. But, to give them their due, they hold a pretty time consuming post I Parliament.

They've got a bloody good constituency office, as I also get a weekly update on what's happened in parliament and what their view was on any substantial debate.

Yes, I wrote to Harriet Harman, when she was my MP and she resolved my problem very fast!

Yes - I wrote to my Labour MP in 2022 about NHS appointment waiting times and she was fantastic. Raised it with the local healthcare authority and also in parliament. It got my appointment brought forward by almost 2 years and improved waiting times for all women in our area. She's very very involved with the local community.

My DH regularly emails our Tory MP to tear a strip off him from abstaining to vote, or being absent. Doubt the MP cares much but it makes DH feel better.

Yep - David blunkett - him and his staff were so helpful and I was very surprised but grateful for their help.

I contacted our current MP as part of a campaign I was involved in to stop the council getting rid of some local sports facilities a few years ago. She was sympathetic but couldn't ultimately do anything to help. But at least she replied and agreed to talk to us, unlike the Mayor and Councillors. I wrote to something like 30 of them and received only one reply.

@goingrouge

snap!!

@AnneLovesGilbert

I've contacted mine twice, I got standard replies on very expensive paper. Look like a royal invitation, but I'd have got more help from the cat next door & at least it's cute & cuddly.

I contacted our local MP weeks after moving to the area. I had trouble transferring my social care budget from my old council to my new one.

It was sorted within 24 hours and I was informed straight away. Got a lovely letter 4 weeks later recapping everything and asking if I needed further assistance.

Therefore, he will always have my vote.

I wrote to my former MP a few times about Brexit. He never once replied. I was delighted when he lost his seat.

Mine uses the same paper! Very thick and cream coloured. I email rather than write him letters but it’s always a proper letter in response.

Can’t imagine him picking up the phone or emailing, he’s old school.

Wow, that’s brilliant. A good egg!

I’ve bumped into him (I know his partner from years back) and chewed his ear off, which is probably not that appropriate in a pub beer garden but fuck it. Nice enough chap, does quite a lot of good around here and is ever present, but I really don’t like his party or politics and I’m less friendly with his partner because of it.

I emailed my Member of Senedd when I lived in Wales and got a slightly ill-informed response, but on following up she was brilliant and helped me to set up a parliamentary awareness event for the issue with the relevant charity. I got the impression that many of the MSs are very invested in their constituencies as it's their local community, some grew up in the constituency they now serve.
I've emailed my MP a few times, mostly about parliamentary votes and similar, and usually got a pile of excuses, if anything.

I did once over a new “neighbour” who was a convicted murderer and paedo and was housed in a block of flats with kids including two teen girls. The response was prompt but crap; along the lines of “we’re so sorry you’re going through this, call the police in an emergency”.
Incidentally, he did leave and we did call the police after he had attempted to lure both teenaged girls and then stabbed one of the residents.

I write to mine a fair bit. I keep a tally of how many I've sent and how many replies I've had and I include this in my letters. I get a response to 1 in 4. It's regarding wider policy issues and not local stuff. It can often be months later when I hear back.

I bumped into her recently and said Labour are making it very difficult to want to vote for them at the moment as she asked me, "do you really feel like you've got a choice?" I do have a choice and it won't be her.

I also wrote to Liz Truss directly once when she was still Foreign Secretary and her office got back to me in exactly 2 weeks. It's the politest fuck off letter I've ever received.

We have very strong local councillors here, so they are the ones who tend to get the local unreasonable requests. They run a Facebook page for the area and it's comedy gold.

Yes. Massive disappointment. It was about a complaint I had about the CMS, who kept closing my complaint and never responding. Her office were fuckung useless, never spoke to or heard from her. I have to vote for her in the next GE but it'll be through gritted teeth.

As part of my job, writing to the local MP's on the behalf of other people is a frequent event, usually when the local council has completely failed to uphold their obligations to a member of the public. Most are really good at responding and geeing the council into action, although there has been a variance down the years. MP's on the whole have been fine, but I can't say the same for MSP's, with a certain former Scottish Tory Leader and now Peer being entirely useless. Had to laugh at the "quitting to spend more time with the family" cliche, because she evidently spent no bleedin' time doing her primary job in the first place.

Yes, related to the appointment of Truss & Kwarteng. I told him he must have taken leave of his senses. That Kwarteng was raving mad and needed to be sidelined asap, and that Liz Truss's values were vile and she needed to be replaced at the first possible opportunity.

He didn't reply, but I'm quite proud of being proved right. 🙂

Mine has an auto reply and that's all I've ever received. I once saw him stand up in parliament congratulating the Queen on her Jubilee though (he posted it on his facebook to say what a great job he'd done of his speech). His instagram is just pictures of his dinner. Round here is a safe Tory seat, people love him and I don't get it. I think all he ever cared about was Brexit and now that's done he's having an easy life and people are happy about that I guess. I would love a different MP. Literally a cat would be more use.

I have not personally, but I did used to work on the receiving end of MP letters in my role in utilities.

Older constituents would write to their MPs for help with utility debt, but also to complain about our tariff policies, eg they weren’t entitled to a cheaper tariff because they didn’t want to manage their account online.

Younger constituents would write to MPs about really complex issues with their account that the call centre staff had failed to resolve, like being billed for your neighbour’s meter.

The complaints would have come to the same person (me) regardles of whether the customer had written to their MP or our MD.

Oh I did also have one MP’s office blackmail me into giving a customer a discount that he wasn’t entitled to.

I contacted mine once to make them aware of an issue with the local Council (it's now resolved but by the Council) and secondly as they are a Tory, to urge them not to support Boris Johnson to be Tory leader but someone else (sadly they supported the man who became the worst Prime Minister in British history).

I've emailed a few times and always had a prompt reply, not asking for help though

I'm not surprised that they are overwhelmed, I often see suggestions on here to involve an MP as the first step to solve a problem where in real life you'd have several steos before that

Yes, but she just told me to contact the council when I’d told her that i already had. Waste of time.

I did our previous MP, who was absolutely fantastic. Our LA had me jumping through hoops to get DS an EHCP. Finally got it and they agreed to a special school place but then would not provide transport, despite the fact the school was 4 miles away and I had 2 other children to get to another school at the same time. I wrote to my MP in desperation as I didn't know what I was going to do and within a week I had a call confirming his transport place.

Our new MP is a tosspot.