Nicholas ([info]nwhyte) wrote,
@ 2008-07-08 09:40:00
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Entry tags:comms package, eu

Responsiveness
On Sunday morning I emailed 38 MEPs, the 14 who represent me as a resident of Flanders, and another 24 of various nationalities and political inclinations who I happen to know professionally or personally.

48 hours on, I have had replies from precisely three - the sole Flemish Green, and two German Greens. Silence from all the other political groups.

Perhaps the day before and the first day of the week of a plenary sitting in Strasbourg is not a fair test. Be that as it may, Mr Staes now has a pretty good chance of getting my vote next year.

Edited to add: Had a reply also from Chris Davies (Lib Dem, NW England) along the same lines as [info]arwel_p.


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[info]liquidjewel
2008-07-08 08:35 am UTC (link)
Mr Staes now has a pretty good chance of getting my vote next year.

Agreed. I did recieve something from Marianne Thyssen, who's CD&V and a member of the IMCO, but all I recieved in return was a formmail.

Geachte,

Wij hebben uw e-mail en uw bezorgheden over het Telecom-pakket goed ontvangen. Mevrouw Thyssen zal over deze kwestie
worden geïnformeerd. We zullen ook uw vraag en bemerking grondig onderzoeken.

Met de meeste hoogachting,
I wouldn't mind so much if it actually said anything about her position.

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[info]nwhyte
2008-07-08 05:15 pm UTC (link)
Well, you got more from her than I did, and I live in the next village to her (in the same commune)!

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[info]elmyra
2008-07-08 08:43 am UTC (link)
Okay, I give up. I skimmed BoingBoing, I googled, but I can only find lots of people telling me to call my MEP, and no one seems to have picked up the result of the vote. Put me out of my misery please? ;-)

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[info]crazysoph
2008-07-08 08:44 am UTC (link)
Would this do?

http://blogscript.blogspot.com/2008/07/result-of-imco-vote.html

Crazy(and hoping that's what you had in mind)Soph

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[info]elmyra
2008-07-08 08:53 am UTC (link)
Ugh. Yes, that's what I had in mind. Thanks.

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[info]crazysoph
2008-07-08 08:43 am UTC (link)
I skipped a couple of my own MEPs but still, only two replies: one from a Socialist (who sent a different e-mail to the [info]dear_hubby! although content was substantively the same), the other from a Christian Democrat, a form letter much like the one the commenter [info]liquidjewel got.

I'll be keeping this mind, along with your Mr Staes.

Crazy(and feeling electorially bitchy)Soph

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[info]crazysoph
2008-07-08 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Gotten one more - from Ivo Belet. I haven't digested it yet, but [info]dear_hubby says it's actually in support of the amendments.

Crazy(well, and now we know who to vote against come the next election...)Soph

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[info]frandowdsofa
2008-07-08 08:48 am UTC (link)
I emailed the 6 Yorkshire & Humberside MEPs. I have had one reply, the generic Tory email that Pangloss posted. He got my gender wrong, though. Not impressed so far.

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[info]autopope
2008-07-08 09:43 am UTC (link)
I mailed seven MEPs and got a reply from just one: Ian Hudghton (Greens/EFA group). And that was mostly boilerplate rather than a considered answer ...

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[info]redfiona99
2008-07-08 10:01 am UTC (link)
Of the six I e-mailed, I have had one reply, not entirely unexpectedly from Bill Newton-Dunn, who already has my vote for other reasons.

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[info]redfiona99
2008-07-14 06:13 pm UTC (link)
Just had a reply from Roger Helmer (Con) today. And not a form letter either.

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[info]redfiona99
2008-10-31 03:23 pm UTC (link)
I also think I should add that I got one from Glenis Willmot too, although that was a little later.

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[info]getawaywithit
2008-07-08 10:11 am UTC (link)
I emailed all seven of mine through Write To Them (and noted that I can use it to write to myself as well...) and got three replies. One from a Tory saying one of his colleagues would respond in detail and two from the UKIP MEPs (yes, we have two in my region, aren't we lucky?) explaining that this was all because the EU is evil and proves we should leave.

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[info]catilinarian
2008-07-08 10:31 am UTC (link)
If it makes you feel any better, Nicholas, my job involves emailing 180 MPs about once a week, usually with invitations to free meetings that involve cool speakers and possibly biscuits. Generally, I get about eight responses (the same eight, of course!).

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[info]bohemiancoast
2008-07-08 12:49 pm UTC (link)
I've had no replies from the London MEPs.

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[info]white_hart
2008-07-08 01:48 pm UTC (link)
I emailed all six of mine and have only had one reply, just now, from a UKIP MEP, who appears to vote against all proposed legislation on principle.

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[info]surliminal
2008-07-08 01:52 pm UTC (link)
I have had I think 6-8 replies from 12 mailed (must check) - which seems about the best hit rate of anyone I've heard from.

I've had careful informative personalised replies from Lib Dems and Greens; scarey replies from 2 UKIPs; form responses from 2 or 3 Conservatives; and NOTHING from Labour. (I used my edinburgh postcode as well as Soton.)

This wil certainly alter my feelings about votes in future.

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[info]captainlucy
2008-07-08 02:16 pm UTC (link)
Of the 3 Northern Irish MEPs, I only got a reply from James Nicholson of the UUP, explaining how the hype was wrong and this would really, really strengthen the Internets. :/

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[info]nwhyte
2008-07-08 05:16 pm UTC (link)
Yes, he's a man I look up to for his technical knowledge all right.

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[info]londonkds
2008-07-08 02:21 pm UTC (link)
I emailed all mine through You Write To Them and have received no response at all.

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[info]nwhyte
2008-07-08 07:02 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm not sure how effective a mechanism that is. I always prefer the individual personalised message, with postal as well as email address attached. Of course, I still got only an 8% response rate, which is not exactly brilliant!

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[info]inuitmonster
2008-07-08 10:22 pm UTC (link)
I think politicians see mass mailings like You Write To Them as basically the same thing as spam, and deal with them accordingly. If you want a response from a politician, you are probably better off either ringing their office or sending them a letter through the post.

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[info]redfiona99
2008-07-09 01:08 pm UTC (link)
I've had a reasonably good response rate from it (at a UK parliamentary level anyway) but it could be because I'm now 'oh not her again'.

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[info]inuitmonster
2008-07-08 10:20 pm UTC (link)
Can you vote for people in Belgium?

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[info]nwhyte
2008-07-09 11:04 am UTC (link)
Yep - for European and local government elections anyway. Once our citizenship comes through we can vote for the whole lot.

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[info]inuitmonster
2008-08-25 09:40 pm UTC (link)
belatedly - sorry, what I meant was, does the electoral system in Belgium have you to vote for individual people rather than a party?

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[info]nwhyte
2008-08-27 01:10 pm UTC (link)
You have the choice - you can either tick your preferred party list as a whole, thus endorsing the party's preferred order of candidates, or give a preference vote to any number of candidates, thus bumping them up the queue; an optionally open list system.

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[info]arwel_p
2008-07-09 07:16 pm UTC (link)
I emailed the 9 Northwest England MEPs through WriteToThem, and so far have 3 responses: Gary Titley (Labour) says the 3 Labour MEPs have split the region between them, and Brian Simpson handles my area and will no doubt reply in due time (err, not yet, and do they never vote if someone from elsewhere in the region writes to them?); Den Dover (Conservative)'s complete response was "The situation is not as bad as you think"; Chris Davies (Lib Dem) wrote that he's not on the IMCO committee but had received a lot of emails about the vote "some of which contain a good number of misconceptions within them" which prompted him to write a detailed reply, largely concentrating on how wonderful the Telecoms Package is, and how it extends users' rights in electronic communications "In particular, the Directive contains no provisions on Copyright Law enforcement, not does it refer in any way to the French Government’s proposed enforcement agreement. Members of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee were highly critical of lobbyists who had completely misrepresented the objectives of the legislation. Nevertheless, they welcomed further constructive suggestions for improvements to ensure that the text has no consequences that infringe consumer rights." Hmm....

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[info]nwhyte
2008-07-09 09:52 pm UTC (link)
I had a similar one from Davies (who I'm friendly with in general). Anyway, fair ply to him for writing at length, but the dialogue between Professor Edwards and Malcolm Harbour sounds more promising.

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[info]uitlander
2008-07-10 06:11 am UTC (link)
I have replies from two of the seven that represent me - Ashley Mote (Independent) and Nigel Farage (UKIP), both saying they are voting against. Unsurprisingly, my Labour (Peter Skinner), Conservative (James Elles) and 2x Lib Dem (Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne & Sharon Bowles) representatives have not responded. More disappointingly, neither has the Green (Caroline Lucas).

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[info]uitlander
2008-07-12 03:30 pm UTC (link)
As a follow up, I had an e-mail yesterday from the Green explaining that whilst she did not sit on the committee concerned, other Greens did. She tells me that "Greens tabled an amendment requiring ISPs to ensure that subscribers can send and receive any form of content" adding that "[she] thinks we need amendments that clarify the text by removing the vague and dangerous concept of "lawful", as it does not belong in the telecom package, and that seek to keep real net neutrality." and that a further vote would be taking place on the whole package later in the year when the Greens as a group would be deciding which way to vote on it.

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