WRITE TO YOUR MP

[GeneticTest]

yes. I’m shouting.

I work for an MP. We’ve had VERY few emails and letters about transgender/safeguarding issues. It’s really not on the radar.
More people need to write.
If you have a newly elected MP they may have no idea at all.
Lay it out clearly.
Be specific.
Ask questions
Give personal examples as to why you are concerned.
Presume that they know nothing
At the moment it’s not an upcoming piece of legislation, so it’s ‘not imortant’ To many.
If you get an out of date or ‘stock’ answer do try again with specific questions.

Do not be fobbed off
Give your name & address or they won’t answer.

For those With Tory MPs- with such a big gov majority, and no imminent election, they may be more likely to put head above parapet. (They may not, but here’s hoping)

But WRITE. MN Posters are funny and intelligent and articulate and well researched. Let’s use that collective brilliance to convince MPs

*mp ooops

Political representatives should be going out to actively find out what people think

Did you land recently on Planet Earth? Yep, I am being blunt. That's not how politics works. This is a majority Conservative govt, with lots of disaffected Labour voters whom they want to retain. It's a great time to articulate concerns before the lobby's demands dominate. I don't appreciate your rape vibe comment. Not at all.

I've written to mine multiple times and has deigned to reply only once. Seriously considering going in person: I'm harder to skim read and delete in physical form.

Michelle

How frustrating. Is your MP newly elected? I reckon the ones who are in constituencies which have just switched allegiance might be more motivated than those that have been in situ for years..

Second term, but a safe seat sadly, and a parachuted in Con male that while perfectly nice, doesn't live in the county and has as little to do with it as he can manage .

The Labour candidate is a local guy, very engaged, very active, wholly focused on the needs of the local area and would hands down have been my choice of just what we need.... IF he hadn't been a huge Corbyn/Momentum fan and therefore KoolAided.

That's very frustrating. The thing that is so ludicrous is that you would expect the Conservatives to be ideologically opposed to self ID and the GRA. Apparently not. Good luck with the meeting Michelle

I just contacted again. Was ignored the first time but we have a new mp now so.wish me luck

No one is being shamed for not contacting their MP, but rather encouraged to do. I for one am finding it very helpful.

That is in no way parallel to not speaking up about rape because you are afraid your rapist, the media, or the courts will harm you for speaking up.

Your MP isn't going to come and beat you up for writing to express your concerns!

How else are they supposed to know what their constituents think if constituents don't tell them?

No one is being shamed for not contacting their MP, but rather encouraged to do. I for one am finding it very helpful. That is in no way parallel to not speaking up about rape because you are afraid your rapist, the media, or the courts will harm you for speaking up

Thank you for saying that CousinKrispy appreciate it.

I'll be very embarrassed if my MP shows up at my door to give me a kicking

I have written to my MP five times.

Tumbleweed.

fans of political engagement might want to go via:

www.writetothem.com/

which not only helps locate your MP with contact details, but will help you send an email which then feeds:

www.theyworkforyou.com

so you can see how well (or not) your MP is doing their job.

That’s fine Bovary, we disagree, I don’t appreciate your comments to me either, have I just landed on planet Earth - how patronising, I just have a different opinion from you. I do find the ‘silence is compliance’ line shaming to those who have not (yet) spoken up. I also think my comment re rape culture is being misconstrued but don’t have enough spoons left to argue right now.

Thank you and yes, good to prompt this.

I wrote to my new Tory MP who responded straight away. Mostly to tell me there are already robust safeguarding rules in place in schools (my specific local example was stonewall schools advice with big safeguarding holes in).

However, they did say they appreciated hearing my concerns and were willing to listen.

It could have been a fob off. But hopefully my letter might have prompted some thinking and I gave links to research.

I've written to my MP twice and heard nothing at all back. Apparently from googling, she appears to be gender critical, but I'm pretty fed up that she hasn't responded.

I've written to my MP twice and heard nothing at all back.

For me, the nice thing about the writetothem site, is that it checks back with you after a while and asks if your MP responded or not. Not just in a yes/no way

Your feedback allows us to publish performance tables of the responsiveness of all the politicians in the UK. We are keen to give politicians the credit they deserve when they respond promptly to their constituents. We think it's also worth highlighting the representatives who don't.

I remember looking round the Houses of Parliament a few years ago and was told there was a rule whereby if you left a message in person they had to come and see you or if not there they had to respond within a certain short timeframe. Can’t remember the details other than you had to be there in person.

Also, if in Scotland:

WRITE TO YOUR MSPs

You have several of them.

"For me, the nice thing about the writetothem site, is that it checks back with you after a while and asks if your MP responded or not. Not just in a yes/no way"

That's really useful to know Serendipity, thank you.

I spoke to my Conservative MP while he was campaigning for re-election. He listened very carefully to what I had to say, seemed fully aware of the situation (and mentioned things like female prisons before I could) and said that he felt very uneasy about the way debate and sensible discussion is being shut down. He is a relatively senior Tory so I felt relatively heartened having spoken to him. I was very nervous as I'm nowhere near as eloquent as many of the posters on these boards, but I do agree that unless we keep telling them what we're worried about, it will keep slipping into the long grass.

He listened very carefully to what I had to say, seemed fully aware of the situation (and mentioned things like female prisons before I could) and said that he felt very uneasy about the way debate and sensible discussion is being shut down. He is a relatively senior Tory so I felt relatively heartened having spoken to him

That sounds like a great start. If he's senior, hopefully he can amplify these concerns to the upper echelons of the party. Have you seen him post election? Good luck with this. One of the ways this lobby has been able to advance its agenda so far, so fast is because most people don't know anything about it. I do think that is changing.

‘I have written to my MP five times.

Tumbleweed.’

Oh this makes me SO cross!!!

My MP replies to all individually written emails & letters. (He doesn’t reply to ‘click’ emails from 38 degrees which are all duplicates)
Unless you email 5/10 times a day- then people don’t get a reply every time.

For new MPs, they may not have any staff, offices or computers yet. They are likely to take longer to reply.
Our office aims for response within 10 days- all responses by letter.
Emails & letters are given equal weighting. Letters sent to parliament take longer to get to MPs as they go through security screening first.

You can ask for your concerns to be referred to the relevant minister or shadow minister. You may well get fairly bland answers back. But you may be the first person who has raised your particular concern (safeguarding/GIDs/ROGD/female penises/sport/prisons/freedom of speech/etc) with your MP.

Good luck!

(My MP is GC)

(My MP is GC)

Publicly? When discussing privately with other MPs? Any intent to challenge the GRA reform proposals etc?

Just realised that might sound sceptical written down, I mean it in an excited/encouraging kind of way!

Also, because you might know - how do MPs get into select committees and APPGs etc, do they put themselves forward or are invited, who scrutinises the makeup of these groups?

aesopfable you're talking of green carding your MP. A friend of mine has tried using the facility a number of times to get a response from her MP, but even though he's in the commons and she's waited all day, the MP has failed to see her or contact her at a later date. It may be worth a try if you have absolutely nothing to do one day.

www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/news/funding-news/green-carding-your-mp-in-five-steps/

I've written to my shadow front bench MP several times in the last year. No response whatsoever. He's so low profile in the local community I don't think he actually exists.