Alistair Burt’s monthly column: Keeping a personal touch in an age of online petitions

I was struck with the similarities to their own school council. Representation by members of the class, meetings to decide things, and ‘suggestion boxes’ around the school for ideas to discuss.

MPs get lots of suggestions about what they should do, and probably more about what they should not do! Policies are primarily based on the manifesto’s parties put to the public at election time, but many evolve during the five years or so of a Parliament.

In the past, ideas and responses to government plans emerged from letters, or meetings. But with the coming of e-mail, so much more contact with you is done that way.

But what about the e-petition? There are many more of these, and I am not quite sure how much they tell us. Is it too easy to sign up, and do these petitions really represent what people think, especially those organised by national groups who produce thousands of expressions of concern that very few people had actually written about previously? Or are they a good thing because it is easier for more people to communicate on important topics?

All communication with an MP is good and valid; let me make that quite clear. But whilst I see almost everything which comes into the office, and respond properly to expressions of opinion by petition, I think most MPs would say that the carefully considered letter from a constituent strikes home more than a petition. And I have to say also that there are times when a standard communication with me will result in a standard response putting the governments position, which I hope is fair.

So do keep writing. Even if you are supporting a petition, do explain why; as your personal insights help me understand just that bit more than I may be picking up through visits, conversations and the hundred and one chance conversations which make up my time in Bedfordshire.