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I just wrote to my MP telling him that I'm disgusted by Cameron's attempt to use a tragedy in this way. I hope that other UK readers will do the same. If you've never written to your MP before, Write to them is run by mySociety and makes it very easy.

RTFA and you might then understand the issue.

What they don't clearly say is the real reason they dropped the bans is because the bans would likely not be legal if TTIP were implemented.

TTIP removes the ability of the gov't and EU to protect people and the environment in many ways. ISDS allows companies to sue governments if some new law causes them to lose profits. In effect, new laws to protect people can not be written if they impinge on some corporations TTIP given right to make profit at any expense.

TTIP is insanely bad, it is undemocratic, written by The Commission and corporations in order to help corporate profits at the expense of jobs, health, public serivces and the environment.

What is TTIP? And six reasons why the answer should scare you - Comment - Voices - The Independent

UN calls for suspension of TTIP talks over fears of human rights abuses | Global | The Guardian

New trade deal with U.S. will open the door to inferior food pumped with growth hormones and pesticides warns Jamie Oliver | Daily Mail Online

TTIP will cost one million jobs: official | War on Want

Email MEP (not mp) (sorry UK only)

This capitulation is very much proof that there will be a race to the bottom with regards to standards, there will be a corporate orgy of cost-cutting at the expense of our health and product quality. All of this cost-cutting will of course cost jobs.

Stop TTIP, sign the petition

In the UK, we have TheyWorkForYou, which is developed by mySociety, a charity that exists to provide useful tools for voters. They also run a few related sites, including WriteToThem, which provides an easy way of identifying and contacting your elected representatives.

If you want to improve the state of your government, then donating to an organisation like them is probably a much better idea than giving the money to any party.

Get onto https://www.writetothem.com/ and type in your postcode. Tell your MP that you don't care who he/she is, or how good their record for your local area. Tell them that because they're affiliated with the major parties that are either condoning this, or failing to do anything to stop it you no longer feel you can vote for them. Tell them you're going to vote for one of the smaller parties - you're not sure who just yet, but will look into it and pick one that seems like it's acceptable, just so long as it's not any of 'the big three'.

> That just isn't how it works. However, you probably should make your MP aware of what is wrong

https://www.writetothem.com/

> and Boris too

https://www.london.gov.uk/cont... (includes an email address)

You can also contact the Lord Mayor (City of London) spokesmen.
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk...

> It can't be much harder than posting to Slashdot can it?

Not much harder but you have to sacrifice anonymity and supply a UK postal address.

> Obviously I didn't read the article. And am just rambling.

Best way to do it.

That's unfortunate -- you could try the advice here: http://www.writetothem.com/about-qa#noreply (or as much of it as applies in Canada).

My previous MP (I recently moved house) was dismissive, but I knew she would disagree with most of what I wrote to her about.

We have a website in the UK: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ which is a great resource -- I get emailed every few days when my MP speaks in Parliament with a link to a transcript. There are NZ, Australian and Irish versions (it's open source), is there something similar for Canada?

Here is the official UK government portal to e-mail Lady Howe of Idlicote. If you live in the UK, then I urge you to write to her with your opinions:

www.writetothem.com

It's not the body of the communications that can be trawled, but the headers. The government want to be able to see who is communicating with who, and when. The plan was written about in The Telegraph last monthbut the plans are much older than that. The last Labour government, lover of all things authoritarian, came up with the Interception Modernisation Programme which in its original form would have had details of all electronic communications sent to a central government database. When the government eventually realised that this would be completely impractical they shifted the work to the service providers, who would all have to keep the details of the communications travelling through their networks and give the government access to their database at all times. The service providers realised just how much this would cost and so the government committed £2 billion to cover those costs over ten years. The plan was heavily criticised by the Conservatives, who published a paper titled Reversing the rise of the surveillance state. (Which is still on their website.) It was also criticised backthen by the London School of Economics.The plan was shelved in 2009 after opposition from communications service providers and a realisation that it would not be popular with the public.

After the election, though, the Conservatives decided to resurrect the plan, giving it a new name, theCommunications Capabilities Development Programme. (CCDP) Questions were raised in 2010 bythe Information Commissioner's Officeand it was mentioned in The New Statesman. Now the government are pushing ahead with the CCDP and the queen's speech will say that they intend to introduce legislation to implement the programme as soon as possible.

There are many things wrong with this programme of spying. It is impractical, expensive, a huge violation of our privacy, it places too much power in the hands of government, a government who we cannot trust. Making the full details of who talks to who available will allow security personnel to trawl through our data on fishing trips instead of requiring some basis for suspicion. Combined with the database for Universal Credit, which will be almost as comprehensive as the National IdentityRegisterthat was criticised so much by the Conservatives, and the centralisation of medical records, this provides private information about us all to the government on anunprecedentedscale with huge scope for abuse and for life-destroying mistakes.

If these plans scare you, please write to your MP to tell them your objection to the Communications Capabilities Development Programme. You can use WriteToThem.com to send it if you don't have their details. Pleasesign theOpen Rights Group's petition against government snooping and maybe consider joining the group too.

SOPA and PIPA are dead... meet their cousin, ACTA. Please contact your MEP (Members of the European Parliament) using this link and register your protest:

UK:
http://www.writetothem.com/

Rest of Europe:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch.do;jsessionid=EAF5D554A71EBE16A5E8A71092CD2DB9.node2 [europa.eu]

A brief analysis of the issue, but obviously presenting a one-sided view... so weigh the info as you see fit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihere3PEPg&feature=g-all-u&context=G20f3a72FAAAAAAAABAA

Write to your MP and MEP right now: WriteToThem.org. Tell them what ACTA is, why you disagree with it, why it is damaging to the country's industries and how you don't appreciate having legislation drafted in secret and forced through in the interests of foreign business. Remind them that other MEPs, charities and ISPs all have grave concerns about the implications of this treaty.

I have done so already, and it would only takes a few emails to make your MEP aware that this is a real issue. Otherwise, we're just punks on the Intarwebz who like to hustle online petitions, dress up as Guy Fawkes and break stuff in London.

If you are European, you wil have MEPs too. Write to them, and your national government representative today. You all have one. It doesn't take long.

Excellent :)

Write to Them has a convenient link to MEPs (and MPs, etc).

The problem the GP mentions is real but I agree with you that it is still our fault. We should demand better democracy with elected EU reps. Unfortunately we don't seem to be interested as the last time the UK was given an opportunity to become more democratic we rejected it by a large majority thanks to a massive outpouring of FUD.

Write to your MEPs. You can do it for free online via They Work For You in the UK, not sure about elsewhere.

If you are in Europe then contact your MEP about ACTA. Which has similar problems to SOPA and PIPA.
If you are in the UK you can do so easily at writetothem.com.
More info here and here.

UK:
http://www.writetothem.com/

UK:
http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/your-meps/your-meps

Rest of Europe:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch.do;jsessionid=EAF5D554A71EBE16A5E8A71092CD2DB9.node2

Is he your only MEP? If not, bug one of the others. One of mine is a member of the FFII, so she's pretty much guaranteed to vote against it. One is a member of UKIP, so he votes against everything without engaging his brain (to quote Gilbert and Sullivan, that is assuming that he's got any). The other two may not have made up their minds yet.

For anyone else in the UK, don't forget that there is a government-funded portal for sending letters to elected representatives

For all the Brits reading this, you should write to your MP at http://www.writetothem.com/ we need to make sure that this is brought to their attention, and that they understand that we will not accept this ridiculous extradition attempt

Any MP will tell you one well written letter in an envelope with a stamp is worth uncounted numbers of emails, because someone has bothered to communicate, and where one person takes action, many others think the same but cannot be bothered.

Really? My MP often replies to my emails (and I think about what I write) within hours.
I first emailed her (and the other candidates) during the election campaign to find out their views on issues important to me - my previous MP used to even reply to my tweets! Most MPs are getting as used to new technology as the rest of the public, they know that 99% of people don't use snail mail anymore. Just because it's email doesn't mean it's thoughtless or meaningless.
Of course, you're right that they used to think that way, but for the wrong reasons - Write to them appends a hash of your email address and words to the effect of "signed in accordance with digital communications act 19xx" because MPs didn't trust 'letters' without a signature. It's because they didn't understand the technology, not because they can be spammed, after all it's not hard to post a letter.

See this list for who voted and how.

To contact details for them go to WriteToThem.

If they voted against, let them know that you appreciate it. My MP is Don Foster, who voted against. I've emailed him to thank him for doing so.

If your MP voted in favour, berate them for their obvious contempt for you, not just in passing this bill, but the manner of its passing.

If they didn't vote at all, ask them why they are such a spineless contemptible worm (in the nicest possible way) and ask them why you should vote for a person or party that has so much contempt for you that they couldn't be bothered to debate and vote on such a bill, and could allow it to be passed in this way. Point out that not voting in this case was tacit support for the bill and the manner in which it was passed.

Keep it clean and polite (nut-job rants will be ignored), but make it clear what you think of them and their kind.

As I pointed out to Don Foster, whatever the merits of this bill, the idea that it could be passed in this fashion just goes to show just how much contempt many politicians have for the electorate (as if we needed any more evidence).

And for christ sake, VOTE. I'm bored of people telling me they are not voting because "they are all the same". If you don't want to vote for one of the main parties, vote for an independent or a smaller party. If you don't vote at all then they don't care about you, it doesn't work as a protest.

"In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve" - Alexis de Tocqueville/Hunter S Thompson (and various others, take your pick).

I don't know who 38 degrees are, but MySociety have already received government funding to make it easy to write to all of your elected representatives. So far, my MP has failed the Turing Test three times. I am tempted to run a 20-line Prolog program against him at the next election.

rather than always writing to complain / object. How about some letters of support.

I'm guessing MEPs don't get many - and they may notice and remember them.

http://www.writetothem.com/

Finally we have the chance to lobby elected representatives rather than aetherial bureaucracy! Don't let's waste it, guys...

If anyone in the UK wants to write to their MEPs about this resolution (you should), you can use this page to do so. I'm sure similar services exist in other countries, or you could just post the MEPs a dead tree version of your complaint.

For goodness sake let them know what you've just told us. A polite letter explaining that you were seriously intending to support them, but won't now, will do more than you might expect.

Even an email via http://www.writetothem.com/ makes a big difference. I know my MP has answered me every time I've emailed her. Hell, my MP even responds to my tweets to her twitter account, she's a Lib-Dem and I was going to vote for her as we won't have a Pirate Party member standing in my constituency.* It now depends on her response to my email about this vote.

*I'm a member, but don't think I would want to stand myself.

If are not happy with the way this is being handled. And you live in the UK. You can always write to your MP.

there is a great website:

http://www.writetothem.com/

Which makes it really easy. Simply enter your post code, select your MP, then write them an email.

I've had positive results doing this in the past. If enough people agree then your MP will take notice.

Do something about it: write to your MP: http://www.writetothem.com/ will allow you to enter your postcode, finds your MP, sets up a blank fax template to them and will allow you to fax the finished letter to them for free.

There, fixed it for ya'.

I'll be writing to my MP (again) and I urge others to do the same: http://www.writetothem.com/

To write to your UK and EU parliamentary representatives, go to http://www.writetothem.com/

If you live in the UK, you can contact your MEPs by visiting http://www.writetothem.com/.

I did. It isn't hard and mine is going to vote against it. Of course he is in the opposition so it isn't too surprising, but wherever you are in the UK you can write to your MP (by email- its very easy) and a letter writing campaign by valid constituents is going to be noticed. A facebook campaign isn't quite the same thing. Here is my letter and the response and here is where you go to write to your MP

To easily find out who your MP is and send an email, go to: http://www.writetothem.com/ It's actually amazingly useful, when I did it my MP replied directly to me, sent my email on to Gareth Thomas, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform who sent me a lengthy response explaining the matter. This hopefully helped educate my MP as they had to do some research into copyright law, as well as ensuring they know it's on voters minds. Made me feel a little less powerless anyhow.

I've signed several of those petitions. They do nothing -- someone writes a response, and the issue is then ignored.

If you have the time, write to your MP. Go here: http://www.writetothem.com/
I haven't written to my MP yet, but I have written to the Mayor of London a couple of times. I received real, written responses and felt it was a much better use of my time than signing 10 spur-of-the-moment petitions. I'm currently waiting for a response from Boris Johnstone after responding to his transport policy document.

If you oppose these plans, then do something about it. You could do worse than by visiting the No2ID cards website: http://www.no2id.net/ But, you can be even more productive and write to your MP to complain about this. Here's how you can contact your local MP: http://www.writetothem.com/ And don't forget to sign the petition opposing the governments plans to introduce an internet monitoring database: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/privacy-matters/

If you're in the UK, you can use Write To Them to email all you MEPs at once.

I've done it and had two positive responses so far.

I wrote my MP both before and after this vote pointing out among other things the flagrant abuses of the law already.

He wrote back on the one before the vote telling me that "for security reasons, we cannot share the information that we have that makes this extension a requiement, but we only have the public's best interests at heart". I don't expect a reply to my letter post vote.

I also got both of my neighbors to do the same, and they were quite blown away to learn about http://www.writetothem.com/

Nothing changes and until we learn to make a noise in the streets, the politicians won't listen to us.

http://www.writetothem.com/

Contact your friendly neighborhood MP. From my limited understanding the hate speech laws are not intended to prevent people from being critical of a religion, not that Scientology is classified as a religion in the UK, or at least it's not a charitable organization.

I've never seen anything good come from that site. It pretends to be useful, but a while ago I went through and signed about 300 petitions, and I've had responses from the PM's team for most of them by now -- all just make excuses!

Much more useful is writing to your MP: http://www.writetothem.com/
It need only take 10 minutes. I think a badly written letter to your MP would be worth much more than ticking a box on the petitions site.

Whenever the Americans do something stupid, we tell them to write to their senator or whatever. They don't: they order a pizza and watch TV, safe in the knowledge that increased consumerism will balance out any loss of freedom.

Will you do the same? Or will you read the article, go to http://www.writetothem.com/, put in your postcode, click the name of your MP, and send him/her an email (or print it post a letter)? That's the only reasonable way to get anything done about this most MPs probably don't read Slashdot, and most don't read the Guardian either.

http://www.writetothem.com/

I've only done it three times, the first time opposing the expansion of Heathrow Airport. I got a crappy, standard response from Gordon Brown. I then filled out a survey from my local representatives (in London, right under the flightpath) which hopefully will have more effect. I'm quite close to joining e.g. Greenpeace (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7262614.stm) to see if that helps.

The second time I didn't even get an acknowledgement.

The third letter is still on my desk... oops, I should post it.

http://www.writetothem.com/

http://www.writetothem.com/

Talking of Nazism, the release of a single Nazi-porn film is causing MPs in the UK to call for new censorship powers.

They claim they want to give the public more power - in fact, the film was approved years ago after the BBFC relaxed its censorship policies, after consulting with the public. What they actually mean is, they want the power to ban films everytime there is a media uproar from a vocal minority (who haven't even seen the film).

Of course they string out Nazism as the worse example, but we know the law won't stop at Nazi films. The Bogey Man, Death Trap, The Evil Dead and Zombie Flesh Eaters are the new "video nasties", along with Manhunt, which was blamed for a murder, even though it was the victim who owned a copy of the game.

I find the idea of a connection between these films and neo-Nazi groups laughable anyway - as if neo-Nazis are horror film and video nasty fans. Indeed, people who watch these are more likely to be seen as "deviant", and hence more likely to be persecuted by any Nazis anyway!

MP Julian Brazier is the prude who wants to control what you watch. Write to your MP if you disagree. The law is currently being debated in Parliament.

Let your MP know what a bad idea this is: http://www.writetothem.com/

There is the simple solution: http://www.writetothem.com/ MP's do reply (and if you ask all of your MEP's then you get about 6 people hassling the relevant person.

Haven't you guys in the US got something like the UK's http://www.writetothem.com/?
I've used it to write to my MP at least once - and I even got a reply!

I wonder how that one will end.

Exactly the same as the ID card petition - an email from Blair and the government carries on regardless. They've already announced that's what they're going to do, before the petition has even closed.

So my question is, why would you put this site up for people to raise petitions, if you don't plan to pay any attention to the petitions people put on it?

Because politicians want to be seen "doing something". One of those things they want to be seen doing something is "listening to the people" (not necessarily actually listening to the people, only being seen to be listening). Another thing they want to be seen doing is "being at the forefront of the digital revolution" (even if their understanding of the digital revolution is that the internet is not a dump truck). Some bright spark came up with the idea of combing these two, especially as there was already growing "online citizens movement" in the UK with sites like WriteToThem - they even got one of those digital activists to set up the petitions site. I don't think they realized what they were doing.

Sure it is. Besides, if MPs or Congressmen accept emails but don't respond to them, wouldn't that also be a way of "merely keeping the populace happy"?

Interestingly enough, the same people who built this petition system for the government also created WriteToThem — write your message in a text box on the site, and they email/fax/post it to your MP. This has the advantage of them being able to spot when an MP is ignoring people and they've published league tables and other statistics about how responsive MPs are.

Sure it is. Besides, if MPs or Congressmen accept emails but don't respond to them, wouldn't that also be a way of "merely keeping the populace happy"?

Interestingly enough, the same people who built this petition system for the government also created WriteToThem — write your message in a text box on the site, and they email/fax/post it to your MP. This has the advantage of them being able to spot when an MP is ignoring people and they've published league tables and other statistics about how responsive MPs are.

Meanwhile, if you _do_ share the misfortune of being English, please do something.

Sigh. If you are going to give your opinion about the state of the UK and the ineptitude of its prime minister, it would do wonders for your credibility if you understood the basics about the country you claim to know so much about. "English" is not the nationality of the UK.

Write to your MP.

This website makes it easy.

The problem with BECTA is that while they have in the past said "open source is a good thing" and today "MS lock-in is bad" etc., they are responsible for setting school's purchasing policies. And these purchasing policies are not F/OSS-friendly, since purchasing can only be made from "approved" suppliers. These suppliers need to apply for the (costly, I believe) approval process. This indirectly excludes many suppliers who would provide F/OSS options.

At least one UK MP (Member of Parliament) has raised an Early Day Motion drawing attention to the fact that this is a bad thing - this motion has been signed by more than 100 MPs following a reasonably active campaign by technical individuals in the UK. If you're in the UK, write to your MP asking them to sign it!

For some more background and also the letters I've written to my MP, see my blog: my opening letter and my followup.

His Government just blocked an amendment that would prevent LRRB being used to abolish elections, imprison everyone etc.

We have already had the Civil Contingencies aka Nazi Enabling Act which gives near unlimited powers to Ministers in the event of an emergency (eg burning down the Reichstag).

We have already had the dreadful Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act forced upon us. RIPA can force ISPs to secretly install mass surveillance equipment or imprison you if you do not release your PGP keys.

And the insidious Identity Cards Bill is hanging like a Sword of Damocles over British privacy and freedom. ID cards are just a front for an unbelievably intrusive database that would make the Stasi blush. The excellent No2ID campaign cannot persuade the House of Lords to hold this up for much longer...

Other attacks on British freedom here.

As Woodrow Wilson pointed out:

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it... The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

Whether you consider it your duty to protect Britain's freedom or whether it is merely expedient because you'd like to live here, please write to your MP and join the many campaigners who are dedicating their lives to this fight.