WriteToThem

WriteToThem
Type of site
 Site for contacting elected representatives
Owner mySociety
Created by mySociety
Website www.writetothem.com
Alexa rank Negative increase 399,718 (September 2012)[1]
Commercial No
Registration None
Launched 2005 (FaxYourMP, a previous iteration, 2004)
Current status Active

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,[2] 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;[3][4] 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 2004 as FaxYourMP,[5] allowing users to type a message into the website which would then be sent as a fax to their representative’s office.

A year later, it rebranded as WriteToThem,[6] sending messages by email or as faxes to those representatives who did not yet operate an email account.

Controversies

mySociety publish an annual table to show which MPs are the most and least responsive;[7][8] 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.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Fixmystreet.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  2. ↑ "MapIt : map postcodes and geographical points to administrative areas".
  3. ↑ "Site axes MP over 'fake' e-mails". 21 February 2006 – via bbc.co.uk.
  4. 1 2 Tempest, Matthew (20 February 2006). "MPs show no haste to post".
  5. ↑ "Teacamp: Where British Civil Servants Go to Brew Change From Within".
  6. ↑ "WriteToThem.com Launches / mySociety".
  7. ↑ "WriteToThem".
  8. ↑ "John Glen named as one of the 'most responsive' MPs in the country".
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