To think that MP's are wasting my money or is it just good manners?

[Wahtawah]

I've just received a thank you letter from my MP for signing a petition. In it, he details why this petition is important and how he is going to champion it blah, blah

He informs me that there are 30000 other signatories.

Has his mother instilled in him that it is polite to respond by sending thank you letters and therefore IABU - after all, good manners cost nothing.

Or, AIBU to note that it cost 50p to send this thank-you letter and assuming he is equally polite to all other signatories, this petition has cost the taxpayer £15000?

I doubt all those other signatories live in his constituency; a parliamentary constituency is about 70,000 voters. He would only have written to the ones who are his own constituents so it wouldn't have cost that much. If they do all live in his patch and nearly half the voters signed, the issue is clearly a big one locally so worth him following up on.

Mine always sends an email instead. I think posting letters is a waste of money tbh.

How else is he going to get across his "please re-elect me" advertising if he doesn't send letters at the taxpayers expense thanking you for something irrelevant? He'd have to spend his own or parties money - and that would just encourage him to be corrupt to get the money...