Saturday, July 18, 2009

Early Day Motion Update.

James Arbuthnot, MP, Cons signs the EDM.

There are 35 signatures so far, which doesn't include quite a number of MPs who agree with Mark's arguments but who daren't sign for fear of not having checked out the party line.

Honestly, it makes sense to sign, for what IS the point, in these recessionary times, of inspecting thousands of completely satisfactory families?

UPDATE: Very sorry, have lost the comment, but someone asked something along the lines of "why are Early Day Motions important?"

From the EDM home page:

"Early day motions (EDMs) are formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons. However, very few EDMs are actually debated. Instead, they are used for reasons such as publicising the views of individual MPs, drawing attention to specific events or campaigns, and demonstrating the extent of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view."

In other words, whilst EDMs will not make the difference between bills being announced or withdrawn, they do function as a warning signal to government that a bill is going to face opposition and scrutiny and that the government cannot expect to sneak a bill through, relying on the fact that nobody is looking.

This means that it is very important to get those MPs signing the EDM and to get them to do this as early as possible in the legislative process.

6 comments:

Jax said...

I have written to my MP twice, had no response either time, but he has signed the EDM, so either he's getting letters and not responding or someone else has bent his ear.

Bit miffed about the lack of response tbh, have not had an unresponsive MP before.

Anonymous said...

I had a follow up email as a result of writing to my mp with the on line system. They are conducting a survey to find out which mps ignore their correspondence.

Perhaps if you send your 'letter' by email at www.writetothem.com, there might be a response or at the very least an easy way of recording their rude behaviour!

D

D

Jax said...

first attempt was via writetothem, second was via his email address as specified on his website.

Third attempt will be snailmail.

Fourth will require a signature!

Carlotta said...

That's reassuring to hear, Jax. One way or another...

Anonymous said...

Its no. 1785 if any one has a problem finding it!

Elizabeth (My Reading World) said...

That was me asking about EDM's--Thanks!