As a party member I have recently tried to contact some of our ministers in their roles as our party's leading spokespeople. It's not easy. Their published contact details invite you to contact them either as a minister (in which case of course a civil servant drafts the response) or as your constituency MP (I live in Yeovil and my MP is not a spokesman). For example, here's Nick Clegg's details:
If you are contacting Nick as Deputy Prime Minister, please write to him at the Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2AS or via this contact form: www.dpm.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/contact-deputy-prime-minister.
If you are a constituent of Nick's in Sheffield Hallam, please write to him at 85 Nethergreen Road, Sheffield S11 7EH or contact him via this contact form: www.nickclegg.org.uk/ncorguk_contact.aspx
I know the LibDem ministers have a hell of job with not enough political staff, but then I didn't negotiate the details of the coalition agreement, which failed to address the issue. I hope they won't forget their party in the maelstrom of government and constituency business. We've had a year of people forgetting who the Liberal Democrats are and what we stand for.
This is a very very common complaint. Of course the access can't be as easy as it was before the General Election but the Party really does need to get to grips with finding a mechanism whereby ordinary party members can feel that they can make their point other than by detonating a bombshell at conferences. There are Regional Party Chairs. Often there are Regional Party Vice Chairs -Policy. These people are often overworked but it is a possible mechanism. There are retired Party Members with expertise in say NHS, Defence etc who could act as collators & conduits preparing briefs for Regional Chairs to present to our Ministers. Not as satisfying to individual Members as direct contact but better than the black hole that even Regional Conference resolutions seem to disappear into.
ReplyDeletePot and kettle? Actually, I'm trying to contact you and that's proving pretty difficult! No contact form, email address or phone number on this blog.
ReplyDeletePlease get in touch via www.maryreid.org.uk
@Mary Reid I have sent you a message, so you can contact me. Sorry I haven't checked the blog for a few days.
ReplyDelete