Fred Friend wrote: >[snip] > I myself have addressed three e-mails to Rt Hon David Willetts MP > through a message system on the BIS web-site for those taxpayers who > âwant to get in touch with a BIS Ministerâ, receiving no reply to > any of the three messages within the 15 working days promised.
A hint about how politics and representation works in the UK, for those with a vote in the UK. Write to your own MP either on paper or via fax (www.writetothem.org provides an electronic interface which identifies your MP for you, allows you to enter your message, has you confirm your email address and then sends the fax for you - it's part of mysociety.org, a non-profit devoted to improving democratic accountability in the UK). Ask you MP to raise the question with the minister on your behalf. Ministers are supposed to answer questions from MPs and most MPs are happy to pass on reasonable questions on policy and implementation details for their constituents. While it may take a while, I have always got a reply from a minister from whom I have desired information by using this method. The MPs have admin staf whose job it is to chase up unanswered queries. Of course the typical response will be a form letter, so I've found it useful to then reply to my MP again (they send a letter out so I have sent one back, though one could use writetothem again) pointing out that the stock answer doesn't answer my real question and asking for further attention to be paid. It's an invovled process, but tat's the way to have a real impact and ensure that someone close to a minister pays attention to the issues being raised. They use both the via-the-MP, physical/fax and two strikes methods to separate out things that people really care about from those that won't change their votes. Multiple submissions of the exact same question look like an orchestrated campaign and have less impact than individual questions on the same topic but with varied wording and emphasis addressing substantially the same issue. -- Professor Andrew A Adams a...@meiji.ac.jp Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan http://www.a-cubed.info/
_______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
