Tory MP Dominic Raab Tells Constituents “Don’t email me…it’s becoming a real nuisance”

[T_i_B]

Tory MP in useless twat shocker! :wow:

Dominic Raab, Conservative MP for Esher & Walton is threatening 38 Degrees that if we don’t take his email address off our “contact your MP system” he’ll report us to the Information Commissioner.

We’ve been in touch with the Information Commissioner and they’ve reassured us that because he is an MP and his e-mail address is in the public domain, he has no grounds to report us.

We let Mr Raab know this and he responded by having the House of Commons remove his e-mail address from their website. We spoke to the Information Commisioner’s office and again they reassured us that because he is an MP and because his email address is in the public domain we’re in the right by letting his constituents get in touch with him.

We want to be totally transparent about this, so we’re publishing a copy of all the e-mails between 38 Degrees and Mr Raab below.

http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/08/09/dominic-raab-tells-constituents-dont-email-me/

[non sociopath skin]

1. Surprised?

By contrast, our new MP Ian Lavery, has responded so well to a number of issues which Mrs. Skin has raised with him that she now refers to him as "my penpal"

:evilgrin:

The Skin

[T_i_B]

2. There are Tory MP's who are good at answering correspondance...

...Obviously not Mr Raab though.

There are good and bad on this point in all parties IMHO, but this sort of behaviour is pretty dreadful by any standard.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Unfortunately, he'll get away with it...

as Esher is the sort of constituency where a block of wood could be elected MP if it had a blue rosette on it.

My dad had a brave work colleague who once stood as a Labour candidate in Esher; but that is rather like standing as the snowball candidate for Hades.

[non sociopath skin]

4. Sounds like a block of wood just was.

:evilgrin:

The Skin

[enlightenment]

5. I'll second that assessment - what an awful little man.

Digressing slightly, may I ask a question ?

I was looking at some of the responses for the BBC campaign and found it amusing - in a sick, sad sort of way - that almost all the Tories and Lib Dems (do you have a nickname for Clegg and Co? Like 'tapeworms' or something?) . . . anyway, that almost all of those MPs used a canned response to their constituents .

Most of the Labour MPs wrote their own note back (perhaps the same note to each of their constituents, but at least an original effort not composed by some aide somewhere) .

Is that standard practice for the majority party to show their solidarity (one might call that lemming-like group-speak)? Did Labour do the same when they were in power ?

[T_i_B]

6. Depends on the MP in question

Some do use standard responses, some let the central party draft a standard response (which is enought to put me off voting for them) and some do take the time to answer questions properly. When I contacted all the candidates in my constituency over the planned closure of BBC 6 music prior to the election I only had one reply, a bizarre Littlejohn-esque rant from UKIP central office.

[enlightenment]

7. Interesting.

I certainly agree with you that a canned response is irritating enough to put me off them completely. It has become the new standard practice with US Congress as well, far as I can tell. Recently, I got so disgusted after receiving the same robo-response from my Dem senator and both representatives that I made copies of each and made little packets. Then I mailed them back to the Congress-critters in question with a rather bald suggestion as to what they could do with them . . .

I was already on Harry Reid's 'no answer' list (he's my senator); I think I'm now also persona non grata to Shelley Berkeley and Dina Titus. They haven't unfriended me on FB yet, though - so I think I'll have another shot at asking them why they can't write their own version of the party-line claptrap.
:evilgrin:

[T_i_B]

8. And suprise suprise.....

Raab is one of those MP's who uses Conservative Central Office cloned e-mails himself. So he's a massive hypocrite into the bargain!

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/08/raab-to-face-the-wrath-of-dale/

[enlightenment]

9. Hah!

Nice to see the cloned responses were noticed by folks who can use the knowledge to lob a few well-aimed- and well-deserved - grenades at those tw*ts on the right.

[T_i_B]

10. Well I'm sure Labour MP's do the same thing...

...but will right wingers point this out?

Any thoughts on who should be Sheffield United's next manager BTW? I've heard rumours of Phil Brown taking over, which would be the perfect cue for loads of piss taking about fake tan from Wednesdayites!

[LeftishBrit]

11. I'm sure they do in all parties...

And I suspect that often when MPs do send a seemingly personal reply, it was in fact mostly or entirely drafted by a staff member.

However, actually demanding that your constituents stop e-mailing you about an issue is another matter and I have not heard of that before with regard to any MP of any party.