Without wishing to offend anyone, the tables on They Work For You are meaningless; having worked in an urban MPs office on casework, it is * impossible* to meet TWFY's artificial deadline, particularly as they count a letter saying "we've written to the appropriate Minister and will contact you when we receive a reply" as a non-response, and only consider email correspondence, ignoring the old-fashioned hand-written letter or telephone contact, which when I left in 2010 made up at least 70% of constituent contact; I'm afraid those tables are run by people who've no idea what they're talking about.
Many MPs actually don't hold surgeries (particularly since the Nigel Jones incident in Cheltenham) but have a large number of appointments by request, or rolling street surgeries where an area of the Constituency is leafletted midweek saying "xxxxMP will be in the area on Friday/Saturday/Sunday if you have an issue you wish to discuss with xxxxMP please display this leaflet or phone the office to make an appointment" . Does this count in anybody's tables of surgeries held? I'm afraid that the days of hiring a school hall and just sitting there waiting for people to turn up are past. This report is another cheap media shot at MPs in general, and a further sign in the decline in standards of BBC News. On 7 September 2011 21:22, Kevin Wells <[email protected]> wrote: > In message <CAHUvFGzGBBNDGvh3UYrD-oNRfRPq=Nk= > [email protected]> > Richard Pope <[email protected]> wrote: > > >http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14829256 > > According to his They Work For You page he responded to a low number of > messages sent from Write To Them in 2008: > > <http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/stuart_bell/middlesbrough> > > > > > > > > > -- > Kev Wells http://riscos.kevsoft.co.uk/ > http://kevsoft.co.uk/ http://kevsoft.co.uk/AleQuest/ > ICQ 238580561 > Useless Fact 02 In the artic the sun sometimes appears to be square. > > _______________________________________________ > 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/timothy.mullen%40ntlworld.com >
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