Contact our MP
For a time we actively encouraged and empowered one another by coordinating our regular efforts in contacting our MP.
Our volunteer organisers supported Planet Shaftesbury participants and a wider number of constituents from all over the North Dorset constituency, to make sure our voices were heard. Members of the group recognised that we have similar but distinct views and requests.
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Each month our volunteer organisers provided topic suggestions with appropriate background information and links to further detail. Recipients who wanted to could choose a subject that interests them and share their connection to it with their local MP.
Guidance on contacting an MP as provided by the group remains useful:
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Include your address in your message to verify that you are this MP's constituent. The more you can relate local and personal issues to these topics, the more seriously an MP is likely to take them.
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Try to convey how you are affected practically and/or emotionally by the topic. If you can relate the content of your message to your MP's interests, they are more likely to absorb the content.
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Be polite and respectful if you want to be heard.
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You do not need to know the ins and outs of a particular parliamentary debate or Bill to write about the issues. However, do be careful not to make judgements or jump to conclusions not backed up by available information.
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Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland has hundreds of local action groups around the country and is the largest grassroots environmental campaigning community in the UK. Planet Shaftesbury has an affiliation to FoE and has benefitted from their lobbying expertise, but does not have a designated FoE coordinator and is not classed as one of their local action groups. Find out more here: https://groups.friendsoftheearth.uk/