I think the tricky thing of it as a metric is that what counts as "good" depends on four other factors:
a. How long is each surgery? Some MPs prefer smaller numbers but for long sessions. Would they unfairly look inferior on a count of how many surgeries they hold? b. How geographically spread out is their seat? In big rural seats whether surgeries are done around the seat is a factor, and doing one long surgery rather than several shorter ones around different places looks rather different than in a compact rural seat (a twist on point a). There is a big difference in the enthusiasm of MPs for getting round to obscure parts of their seats with surgeries. c. What's the level of demand in their seat? The number of people who try to see their MP varies massively from seat to seat. d. What actually is a surgery? Several MPs in rural seats, for example, take a van or caravan on a tour round their constituency to do a touring surgery. Does that count? None of that would get in the way of identifying an MP who is just dreadful, but it makes it hard to ensure that any data beyond that is meaningful rather than misleading, Mark On 7 September 2011 20:30, Richard Pope <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 8:24 PM, Abdul Hai <[email protected]> > wrote: > > That is not a good reason. I know of lots of people who have had > productive > > meetings with their MPs. > > Sorry, I should have clarified that a bit, too quick to click send. > > What I was getting at was the attendance of MPs in parliament, how > often they vote and how good they are at replying to emails is now > well monitored. But one of their most valuable duties is constituency > surgeries, and it seems odd that an MP might not hold one for 14 > years. > > People value 'good constituency MPs' when it comes to elections, so it > might be a good metric to have. > > > > > > Support solar power in the developing world. > > http://www.everyclick.com/solaraid > > http://www.solar-aid.org/ > > > > > > ________________________________ > > From: Richard Pope <[email protected]> > > To: "mySociety public, general purpose discussion list" > > <[email protected]> > > Sent: Wednesday, 7 September 2011, 20:19 > > Subject: [mySociety:public] A good reason to start scraping MP surgery > > dates? > > > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14829256 > > > > > > > > -- > > /* > > [email protected] > > memespring.co.uk > > ++44 7976730458 > > memespring (flickr/skype/etc) > > memspr (aim) > > Inbox load: http://courteous.ly/95fSJV > > */ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > developers-public mailing list > > [email protected] > > > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > > > Unsubscribe: > > > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/ahai11london%40yahoo.co.uk > > > > > > > > > > -- > /* > [email protected] > memespring.co.uk > ++44 7976730458 > memespring (flickr/skype/etc) > memspr (aim) > Inbox load: http://courteous.ly/95fSJV > */ > > _______________________________________________ > developers-public mailing list > [email protected] > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > Unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/mark.pack%40gmail.com >
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