Trying To Interact With Our Representatives

As a member of Friends Of The Earth Scotland, I occasionally take part in their 'Cyberactions'.

These are very simple emails which you can send to various representatives about items which FoES would like to pressure them on - for example, sending a message to the directors of Ayrshire Power telling them what you think of the proposed Hunterston Coal Power Plant.

FoES give you power over the email too - if you don't like the way they have worded something, or you don't agree with a point they have made, you're free to change it before the email is sent.

I have to say that mostly, I never hear from the people I've emailed through the Cyberactions. So I wasn't holding out much hope when, at the beginning of March, FoES asked us to email the 6 Scottish MEPs to try and put pressure on the EU to increase their climate emissions targets.

Actually, I received a reply within minutes - from the Office Manager of Catherine Stihler MEP (Labour) informing me that she was out of the office due to illness! So, one down and five to go...

Five days after the email I received a reply from the office of George Lyon MEP (LibDem). In it he says:

A 40% reduction across the EU might be theoretically possible; however, it seems to me to be completely pointless for the EU to go any further than 30% without securing a binding agreement on reductions from other Countries.

Completely pointless to reduce emissions???

Another 13 days passed, and the office of Catherine Stihler MEP (Labour) took the time to reply. Unfortunately whoever wrote the email couldn't decide whether they were writing FOR Catherine Stihler or AS Catherine Stihler:

I appreciate your bringing the Friends of the Earth event to our attention, Catherine will do my very best to attend.

The rest of the email didn't say very much at all, and made a point of not committing Catherine Stihler to campaigning for further emissions reductions.

Finally, yesterday, I received another reply, this time from Struan Stevenson MEP (Conservative). I wasn't expecting much - he is a Tory after all! - but blow me. Not only has the oppo who wrote back to me taken the time to write a very well-rounded reply, they've also taken the time to read the report which was linked to in the original Cyberaction email. Something I suspect that none of the other MEP offices did.

While I still won't vote Tory, I have new found respect for Struan Stevenson - he obviously employs people who are happy to interact with the public instead of brushing them aside or giving them standard replies.

As for the other three Scottish MEPs (Ian Hudghton (SNP), David Martin (Labour) and Alyn Smith (SNP)) nothing has been heard from them. I'm obviously not worthy of their time and consideration.