Below is a short guide on how to write to your elected representatives. The primary audience is people in the UK.contents…
Step 1: Who is your MP?
Go to writetothem.com, type in your postcode, and they’ll be listed there at the bottom, along with any local councillors or London Assembly members or whatever, as relevant. Click on their name, and it will take you to a short form where you can type your strongly worded letter and they’ll send it for you.
Alternatively, look them up on the House of Commons database and send them an email, or leave them a voicemail message.
Step 2: Who is your MP?
Your MP is not just your designated recipient of angry letters, they are a person. They have a voting record, they probably have a party affiliation, they may be on Select Committees, they may even be in the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet. Maybe they’ve written articles for newspapers, run a business, or are a landlord. Maybe they are a member of a relevant targeted minority. Maybe they proposed the legislation you are writing about.
How far you want to dig is up to you, but I would recommend at least knowing what party they are a member of. It helps you estimate what arguments may or may not work, and you can reference said party in your letter. I usually ask my MP to push for change not just in Parliament but also within the Labour Party.
Step 3: Why are you writing to them?
Like any essay, draft your key points on a separate piece of paper. Then decide which of those key points will form the basis of your argument for or against the bill.
For example, in response to the leaked proposed changes to trans rights in the UK in June 2020, my letter centered around the risk to trans youth and the specter of Section 28, while a friend centered their letter around “bathroom bills” and their tendency to hurt all women.
Your MP is a person, and like most people, their time and attention span are limited, and they probably won’t read an actual essay.
Step 4: Be snappy.
I am going to teach you how to do technical writing.
First you tell them what you’re going to tell them, then you tell them, then you tell them what you told them.
I have just taught you how to do technical writing.
Always have a TL;DR at the start, and a 1-sentence summary at the end. Again, your MP is a human person with a limited attention span, and they receive a lot of mail.
Do not send them copypasta. Use your words, your own words. If you wouldn’t write it yourself, they probably won’t read it.
Likewise, get to the point. No hithertofore or imagine if you will. Reference the bill, but a detailed legal analysis will come across as copypasta.
Step 5: Reread it.
Step away for a few minutes, then reread it. Is there colorful language that can be toned down? Did you get a little incoherent in your righteous anger?
Make it tighter, make it clearer, make it snappier.
Step 6: Send it.
Fill out your details on the form, click send, wait, confirm to WriteToThem that this is the letter you want to send, then sit back and relax encourage your friends to write their own letters, maybe offering them yours as inspiration.