WebDemocracy – WriteToThem works, but does my MP?

I am sitting here (rather hot) in my voting suit when I got a very timely mail from WriteToThem – the mySociety group which has majot contributions to ensuring that Mps have correspond responsibly with their constituents. Remember that they get money to pay staff to help with correspondence – they don’t have to manage all the stuff themselves. So..

I wrote to my MP (David Howarth) two weeks ago at the suggestion of my MEP and used WriteToThem to do so. I got an acknowledgement from his office:

Dear Mr Murray-Rust,

Thank you for your email about internet neutrality and for including your letter from Andrew Duff. I will ensure that these are brought to Mr Howarth’s attention as soon as possible.

Kind regards,
Susannah Kerr
Casework Assistant to David Howarth MP

Peter Murray-Rust wrote:

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Dear David Howarth,

The Importance of Internet Neutrality

I have been concerned about the absolute need to keep the Internet
neutral and have argued that this is especially important for Cambridge
with its great emphasis on the new knowledge economies.

I wrote to my MEP, Andrew Duff who reassured me about the primary vote,
but also urged me to pressure the UK government (see para 5 in letter
below (“France has been…).
I look forward to a reply.

Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
University of Cambridge

I haven’t heard anything more. Today I got a mail from WTT asking for my feedback on Mr Howarth’s replies:

Two weeks ago we sent your letter to David Howarth MP, your MP. (For
reference, there’s a copy of your letter at the bottom of this email)

– If you HAVE had a reply (not just an acknowledgement), please click
on the link below:

   http://www.writetothem.com/Y/n4ihhklnwr/y7knmfa235iyq7xvisc

– If you HAVE NOT had any reply at all, OR you have only had an
acknowledgement, please click on the link below:

   http://www.writetothem.com/N/n4ihhklnwr/y7knmfa235iyq7xvisc

If you feel that neither link is suitable, then please do not answer
the questionnaire.

Your feedback will allow us to publish performance tables of the
responsiveness of all the politicians in the UK. The majority of MPs
respond promptly and diligently to the needs and views of their
constituents. They deserve credit and respect for their
conscientiousness.

Likewise, we’re keen to expose the minority of MPs who don’t seem to
give a damn.

The letter you sent to your MP will be deleted from our database within
the next two weeks. Our full privacy policy can be read here:
http://www.writetothem.com/about-qa#personal

Please do not reply to this mail. If you have a question or comment
about the site, please send an email to team@writetothem.com

— the WriteToThem.com team

I clicked on the second link. Ian acknowledgement is certainly better than nothing at all but in the Internet age a reply should take less than 1,000,000 seconds (i.e. < 1 microHertz). I shall probably write to him and say that although we were not voting for UK Mps today I shall take his non-reply into account when voting and that there are a significant number of Cambridge readers of this blog who are intelligent and can make their own conclusions.

I think WTT is a wonderful system – the correct mixture of constructive approach and potential criticism of unacceptable failure to reply.