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mysociety / writetothem

Write to your MP, MEP, & other elected representatives.
https://www.writetothem.com
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MP recognition research update #463

Open ajparsons opened 3 years ago

ajparsons commented 3 years ago

Building on upcoming research around MP recognition, want to suggest a change in the FAQ to reflect current picture of knowledge.

Suggest replacing:

*What’s the point of this site, when most representatives publish their email addresses these days?*

One of the primary reasons for WriteToThem’s existence is to help people write to their representatives, even if they don’t know who they are.

It’s easy enough to find your MP’s email address if you happen to know who he or she is, but 78% of the UK population cannot name their representative in Parliament (figure comes from the Hansard Society Audit of Public Engagement 2013 [PDF]).

If you know you want to write to someone in power, but you have no idea how to, then we hope that WriteToThem removes that barrier.

Similarly, you might think it is relatively easy to visit your council website and discover who your local councillors are. We’d say that it depends on the council website. In some cases, it’s a wee bit easier to put your postcode into WriteToThem’s homepage.

With:

What’s the point of this site, when most representatives publish their email addresses?

One of the primary reasons for WriteToThem’s existence is to help people write to their representatives, even if they don’t know who they are.

While most people can recognise their MP from a list, people who pay less attention to politics, who are younger, less educated, renters, or members of a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) group are less likely on average to know who their current local MP is [link to mysociety research]. We want to make it easy and straightforward for people to contact their representatives regardless of their existing knowledge.

This helping hand is even more important for local government, where awareness of councillors is likely to be lower than national figures.

This could go live with the research (likely to be late February?)

MyfanwyNixon commented 3 years ago

Just suggesting a few changes for style/clarity.

What’s the point of this site, when most representatives publish their email addresses?

One of the primary reasons we run WriteToThem is to help people write to their representatives, even if they don’t know who they are.

A significant proportion of the population does not know who their current MP is, and that sector is likely, on average, to reflect younger people, less educated people, renters or members of a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) group [link to mysociety research]. 

We want to make it easy and straightforward for people to contact their representatives regardless of their existing knowledge.

This helping hand is even more important when it comes to accessing local government: awareness of councillors among these social demographics is also likely to be lower than national figures.