WriteToThem
Type of site
Site for contacting elected representatives
OwnermySociety
Created bymySociety
URLwww.writetothem.com
CommercialNo
RegistrationNone
Launched2005 (2005) (FaxYourMP, a previous iteration, 2000)
Current statusActive

WriteToThem is a website by mySociety which allows UK citizens to contact their elected representatives. Users do not need to know their representatives’ names: instead, using the mySociety software MapIt,[1] the site matches their postcode to its various constituency boundaries, before displaying elected representatives at all levels of UK government from local councillors to MEPs. Users can send messages to them from the site;[2][3] responses are then sent directly to the user's email address. Unlike many mySociety sites, there is no public element to the correspondence.

History

The site launched in 2000 as FaxYourMP,[4] allowing users to type a message into the website which would then be sent as a fax to their representative's office.

In 2005, it rebranded as WriteToThem,[5] sending messages by email or as faxes to those representatives who did not yet operate an email account.

mySociety publish an annual table to show which MPs are the most and least responsive;[6][7] this is based on the results of a rolling survey which is sent to users two weeks after they use the site.

In 2006, it was reported by The Guardian that the Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger appeared to admit in an email to the site to attempting to "up" his rating by sending himself queries.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "MapIt : map postcodes and geographical points to administrative areas".
  2. ↑ "Site axes MP over 'fake' e-mails". 21 February 2006 – via bbc.co.uk.
  3. 1 2 Tempest, Matthew (20 February 2006). "MPs show no haste to post". TheGuardian.com.
  4. ↑ "Teacamp: Where British Civil Servants Go to Brew Change From Within". 6 November 2020.
  5. ↑ "WriteToThem.com Launches / mySociety".
  6. ↑ "WriteToThem".
  7. ↑ "John Glen named as one of the 'most responsive' MPs in the country".
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