From: Frederick Friend <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2012 12:32:21 +0000

Andrew is right in pointing to the avenue for UK voters to write to
their MPs. I shall certainly be doing that myself if the present
situation continues. The action tends to have greater effect the
closer we come to a General Election! The question to an MP needs to
be accompanied by an explanatory paragraph, as few MPs are likely to
know much about open access. Contacting local politicians has been
effective in the US.

Fred Friend

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew A. Adams
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 12:09 AM

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
> “want to get in touch with a BIS Minister†, 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                      [log in to unmask]
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/