If you are as concerned as I am that MPs will be voting on thursday to remove their expenses from Freedom of Information requests, then I urge you to visit the website below and email your MP. The site will be able to tell you who your MP is, explains the points to be made, provides references to the information discussed, and will automatically email your MP for you once you have written the text of your letter.
It is a democratic right that MPs are held accountable for their expenses. The order to alter the bill allows MPs to hide from their accountability responsibility to the general public, and as a result merely enforces the idea that MPs are greedy, self serving bureaurocrats rather than open representatives of us, the people.
I'm sure most MPs want to be more open. Many MPs may not even be aware of this change! As the website says, be polite when emailing.
If you think that this small change makes no difference, think again. You and I may not compile Freedom of Information requests every day (I have filed two before, and it's a tedious process that rarely gets the information you need), but this freedom is used by journalists every day to expose the wrongful doings of those in power, and force them to change their ways. In providing this exposure, us, the public, find out more than we could ever do ourselves about the corrupt and greedy nature of SOME of the public servants who we elected to represent us.
I implore all OOFers to visit the site below and email your MP. Your action matters!
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/foiorder2009/Thanks, John.
P.S. I can provide the text of my letter by PM to those who aren't comfortable with writing a response. I've avoided publishing it here as I don't want MPs to be flooded with duplicate letters.
Author
Topic: MPs Expenses issue - write to your MP! (Read 1014 times)