So I write a letter to my MP...

[tigerboyce]

Local paper would definitely print it I would imagine, if they do then take it to a national paper too.

That is a really shocking response and should be exposed in my opinion

[Koolpc]

Labour are going down the swanny, fast.

At the end of the day, they are all as bad as one another.

[G4Z]

Its Tyne Bridge

Come to think of it... I know a local reporter, I am good friends with her.

[Noxvayl]

I dislike all MP's to be honest with you. Although all "trying" to stand for different views and whatnot they are never truly allowed to represent the people because they are looking out for themselves so they don't get kicked out. Politics is a dirty game and although I am very outspoken with my views I don't think I'd ever try to reason with them because they won't let a stupid thing like reason mess with the way they do things.

I'd go to the national papers and try and make this as public as possible to get the most exposure because above politics this guy is arrogant and abusing his power. Of course the idea of stringing the MP along from Agent is brilliant, the more you can get from him the bigger your hit back will be

I eagerly await this story to sweep across the country

[G4Z]

I'd write one back, dissecting his points one by one, but keep it professional. Point out that if you voted for him or not is irrelevant, he is still representing you.

That is exactly what I was thinking.

Something along the lines of :

Dear Mr Clelland,

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and reply, it is good to know that the Labour tradition of hypocrisy lives on with you, I really don't feel my letter to you was rude or offensive as you claim it was and I do think that your letter was rather obnoxious and rude. I can understand you being angry about my letter given that I accused you of gross moral cowardice, but I am surprised that you decided to take that approach when dealing with somebody you are supposed to represent. There is a reason I accuse you of moral cowardice, its based on your voting record and your stance on certain political issues, I have thought about these issues a lot and I have listened to the governments justification and I find that justification to be without merit and the policy to be morally wrong. You stand with that policy, therefore you have either thought about them long and hard, or you have not. If you have thought about them long and hard and you agree with the direction we are taking then I find you an idiot, if you have not given it much thought then your letting your party (or at least a few individuals within the party) to do the thinking for you, in which case you are a moral coward. I could be entirely wrong here and you could have some amazing insight into these issues that will change my mind completely, you had the opportunity to share these in your last letter but instead you chose to attack me and ignore the thrust of my letter.

In your letter to me firstly you say it is your job to do what you believe to be in the best interests of constituents, I disagree I think it is your job to represent the views and the interests of all your constituents not just the ones you agree with. I do not wish to get into a debate about your job description instead I want you to think about the idea that maybe you should vote with your conscience for a change instead of following the party line. I ask you to do this because I feel (me personally, not speaking for everybody as you accused me in your last letter) that our political system is broken and dominated by a distinctly authoritarian and fascist ideology. You may disagree with me about that and I would be interested to know how exactly you justify the national identity register to yourself for example, that way maybe I can put an alternate point of view to you on that.

Your next point seems remarkable, you say that you are an MP because you have a majority of votes but you neglect to mention the 9% swing against you at the last election and you must think I am stupid to not know that this is a Labour stronghold and a lot of people here are not interested in politics and only vote Labour because their parents do or because they think that Labour is for the working man. I am sure some of those peoples minds might have changed since the last budget.

You talk about Labour getting more than 50% of the popular vote and again you must think I am stupid, a quick google reveals that Labour won 413 seats at the last election and 40.7% of the vote. I don't want to discuss this much further other than to say that your party is on its way out and thanks to you the Tories are now going to charge to power with all of those wonderful bits of legislation you left behind, like RIPA, banning protest around parliment, SOCA and many more. Great, wonder where we will be in another 5 years.

Regarding the 42 days without charge law, finally you address something I asked you about. You say that it is 'regrettable' so clearly you can understand why such a law is against basic British decency however you voted for it anyway. When the IRA were setting off bombs and killing 1,800 people over a period of 20 years did we need this type of legislation? Why do we need it now? If the police have somebody, and they think they might be involved in something then they should charge them and they get all the time they need to quiz them. I do not understand how holding them without charge changes anything other than violating one of our fundamental rights and doing immeasurable damage to somebody who could subsequently be found to be innocent.

I also contest the idea that a majority of people are for this law, your presumably basing this on nothing more than one opinion poll. How many letters have you have in favour of this law, and how many have you had like mine? If you give me some numbers for that I might be more inclined to believe your statement that its what people want.

I do not intend to stand for election, I merely want you to represent my views, even if you disagree with them. Regardless of if I voted for you or not, you still represent me and I would like it if you thought a bit more about people who do not want to live in a database state when you are casting your vote.

By the way, given your rude and offensive manner I accept your offer to stick my vote somewhere unpleasant, I was thinking somewhere in your direction.



any suggestions?

Bold bits have been edited

[Rave]

Actually G4Z, TBH I thought your letter was rude. You know that I agree with your reasons for writing to him 100%, but accusing your MP of not thinking for himself is going to get anyone's back up. He might well have thought the issues through himself- and got them entirely wrong. Some people are thick. It doesn't necessarily make them craven moral cowards.

TBH, if I was an MP and someone wrote me a letter like yours I would respond in exactly the same way he has. After all, you're not going to vote for him anyway.

Just stand against him at the next election. And try not to make it personal.

P.S. sorry to 'hit and run' with this reply, but I'm off on holiday tomorow so won't be around to reply for a couple of weeks.

[Noxvayl]

Good reply except I have noticed a chink in your armour so to speak.

This part of the reply to be specific:

Firstly you say it is your job to do what you believe to be in the best interests of constituents, I disagree I think it is your job to represent the views and the interests of your constituents whether you agree with them or not.

If the MP doesn't eat out of a dogs bowl he will cotton onto this sentence and can quite easily reply by saying his vote(which you disagreed with) was cast because his constituents felt that way so he voted for it although he disagreed. Thus he justifies his vote by your statement and can continue to rule your argument invalid because that statement would then be used against you saying you need to accept the other constituents views.

I am not sure how to correct it to safe guard yourself but I thought I'd let you know that its a possible flaw within your reply. I just thought of how I would find a hole in your argument and I found this... hope it helps

[G4Z]

Actually G4Z, TBH I thought your letter was rude. You know that I agree with your reasons for writing to him 100%, but accusing your MP of not thinking for himself is going to get anyone's back up. He might well have thought the issues through himself- and got them entirely wrong. Some people are thick. It doesn't necessarily make them craven moral cowards.

TBH, if I was an MP and someone wrote me a letter like yours I would respond in exactly the same way he has. After all, you're not going to vote for him anyway.

Just stand against him at the next election. And try not to make it personal.

P.S. sorry to 'hit and run' with this reply, but I'm off on holiday tomorow so won't be around to reply for a couple of weeks.

Well, i appreciate your honesty.

You're right, I did accuse him of moral cowardice. As you point out its either that or he is thick, I figured moral cowardice was the less offensive option.

edit : In fact when you think about it, its actually a compliment that I credited him with intelligence....

[TheAnimus]

I thought your first letter was rude, and showed a shocking lack of handling skills.

That said, your not a professional politition, or someone who works in sales/client relations. He is. His response was completely inapropriate.

So, i'd write back something that would incite a little more of a response, be asking for a freedom of information request or similar that will cause his aides work, but piss him off a little too.

I would then look at selling them to a tabloid. Easy grand for your story of shock and horror.

[G4Z]

I do work in sales in fact, I am just not selling to this person.

I mean, I wasn't trying to get this response out of him, its just how I feel. He is my representative so I told him.

[grizzla]

This is a rather good read, i agree with G4Z on this one, although i can see why your MP did not like your initial correspondence. You criticised him and his actions (something you are more than justified in doing so) and in most cases when someone feels they are being criticised or singled out they become defensive.

He may be feeling "hang on a minute i'm not the only MP who is doing this", but this only goes to prove your point further that he is nothing more than a party drone towing party line.

My parents local MP (David Drew) has opposed many of these motions, and having met him and worked ocassionally in the local Labour party office feel that he had been a true representative of his constituents. I havet lived at home for a few years now so i don't get to here as much news as i used to.

G4Z i hope you respond to the "right honorable gentleman", it would be good to have a series of correspondence on the forum. I would even be willing in some way sign to show that i support or share the views which you are trying to express to Mr Clelland MP.

[G4Z]

I am glad its a good read, I hope it will inspire others who have not written to the MP's to do the same, as you can see you never know how much fun can be had!

<wishful thinking>Never know, some things might change into the bargain. </wishful thinking>

[directhex]

accusing your MP of not thinking for himself is going to get anyone's back up

he was whip until 2001

he'd have been fired if he thought for himself rather than pushing the party line

[iranu]

You made the ultimate taboo - criticism of Labour party policy (and a Labour politician). That's heresy mate and you should be burned at the stake for being so "off message".

I don't think your letter was rude, you are perfectly entitled to your view and express that view to the person that represents you. I don't care whether you were rude, offensive, nasty or whatever, a person in his position should be polite and courteous regardless. His arrogance is breath taking. I thought Gordon Brown and his party were supposed to be listening, this plainly shows they aren't. Doesn't surprise me that he was a whip. His debating skills are pretty poor too, he doesn't argue any of your points and his letter is a basic STFU I was elected, put up with it. He's got a 10,000 majority and sits in a seat that will only ever vote Labour so he can tell you where to shove your vote.

Firstly I'd contact your local newspaper and let them print both letters. Let the local people decide who was rude or not. Secondly I'd email Guido Fawkes blog, I'm sure he'd be interested. The national press might catch on too.

[G4Z]

I just re-edited my reply a bit after thinking about some of the feedback I got here. If anybody is still interested comments are welcome.

[pollaxe]

Go for it. They choose to go into politics, they want to be a member of Parliament and they're paid enough for the privilege. No-one makes them take up this line of work so the very least they can do is listen to the views of their constituents whether they like them or not. They are - as is written above - supposed to represent you. In my experience, however, they simply do not.

I've written twice to the waste of space that is our local Lib Dem MP and not even had the courtesy of a reply on either occasion. I despise him and that's why - if I vote at the next election - I'm voting Tory to help get them out. I have no political allegiance to any party, I'm heartily sick of the lot of them - across all parties - to be perfectly honest. The fewer of the moronic, follow the party line type of MP that this man appears to be the better. Definitely take it to the press if you are willing and able and please keep us updated.

edit: Should you wish to go with the stringing along approach www.robincooper.co.uk and/or The Timewaster Letters series is/are highly recommended.