[Liverpool] Open Rights Group : Digital Economy Bill - Manchester, 23rd Jan

[Simon Ward]

On Sat, Jan 09, 2010 at 03:00:26AM +0000, Bob Ham wrote:
> I'm not sure I understand all this; MPs are just people.  Why on earth
> would anyone need training in order to talk to a person?

It is about talking to people, and I would expect the training to
include things such as being polite, and how to get your points across
in a clear and concise manner that apply to talking to people in
general.  Not everybody is very good at this, so this sort of training
is good.

MPs are just people, but they hold a specific role.  They’re reading
your letters, or listening to you, as part of their job, but they don’t
have to (although this may look bad).  They are just as busy as anybody
else, and probably more liable to discard an even only sligtly
inflammatory letter, if it gets past their secretary.

You may also want to go the extra mile, and research your MP’s
posititions on related matters, and take these into account when
communicating with them.  Not everybody knows about sites like
TheyWorkForYou.com[1] or how to interpret the information in them.

WriteToThem[2] also provides a means of contacting your MP, again that
not everybody knows about, and training could give hands on experience
in using the site.  This site isn’t that useful for talking to people in
general.

[1]: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
[2]: http://www.writetothem.com/

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/liverpool/attachments/20100109/cbcc45be/attachment.pgp