[Saracen]

Oh, and G4z ..... me hat's off to you, dude.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of your particular points or Mr Clelland's actions in Parliament or response in that letter, we ALL ought to hold our representatives to account far more often and far more effectively than we do. If we did, maybe, just maybe, we'd have a political class in this country that listened to us instead of patronisingly telling us that they know best what's best for us.

And if that happened, maybe we'd wind up with far less cynicism about politicians and disinterest in politics. After all, the root cause of that cynicism and disinterest, the reason for low turnouts and the general contempt in which many politicians are held by so much of the public is the antics of those politicians, and the patronising way they dismiss us ..... except in the few weeks before the election. And with that letter, Mr Clelland has simply managed to add one more straw to the camel's back. It won't be the one that breaks it, but it helps get us there.

So well done, G4z. Regardless of the reaction from Clelland, his response or any media flurry in caused, all of which are entertaining and informative but, in the scheme of things, irrelevant, taking the time to express your opinion to your representative is precisely what we all ought to be doing, and is a perfect example of civic responsibility. Clelland can ignore one letter from a constituent, but if he got 100 all saying the same thing, I suspect even he would take notice - because anyone with any common sense knows that for every one person that thinks that and takes the trouble to write, there'll likely be a large number that think it and can't be bothered to write. One such letter he can dismiss as an anomaly, but a dozen or a hundred? Not so easy to contemptuously dismiss, are they?

So well done for bothering to write at all. If we all did likewise, maybe our representatives might start to think about doing what we want, not telling us what we want but that we aren't bright enough to know we want it.