WriteToThem.com Zeitgeist 2006
WriteToThem sent a total of 87,503 messages to elected representatives (and Lords) in the year 2006. This page contains some facts and figures about those messages. You can find information about your MP in the MP Responsiveness League Table.
What do people write letters about?
Did MPs do better this year or last year?
Do only the better off use WriteToThem?
Which elected body has the most responsive members?
Which party has the most responsive MPs?
What do people write letters about?
We don't look at your messages (see our privacy policy for details), so we don't know what you write about. However, we do run standard web statistics software, so we know which sites people click through to WriteToThem from. Here is the top campaign website which linked to WriteToThem in each month.
| Month in 2006 | Top campaign site linking to WriteToThem |
|---|---|
| January | Smokefree ACTION |
| February | National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education |
| March | Save Parliament |
| April | Pressureworks (Christian Aid) |
| May | Money Saving Expert forums |
| June | PistonHeads – Speed Matters |
| July | Voice4SportsSW |
| August | Save the Children (ceasefire day) |
| September | Traidcraft InterActive |
| October | Save our Waterways |
| November | Immigrationboards.com |
| December | anti-slavery |
Where a site was top for more than one month, it has been excluded from the later months for variety. Non-campaigning sites, such as search engines, directories, TheyWorkForYou, Public Whip, and news stories about mySociety, have been excluded from this table. Most of the campaigns were short term, and their specific page no longer works, so we have instead linked to the top level of the campaigning site.
Did MPs do better this year or last year?
Overall, according to our users' survey responses, MPs were 2% less responsive to constituents' messages sent via WriteToThem in 2006 compared to in 2005. This is partly because of a sharp drop in the number of MPs getting those near-perfect scores of 90% or higher responsiveness. On the other hand, far fewer MPs have woeful response rates less than 20%. More details in the full MP Responsiveness League Table.
Do only the better off use WriteToThem?
Sometimes people have told us that websites like WriteToThem only help people who are already better off in society, because they have better access to computers. One of our volunteers, Sam Smith, has tested this and found that people from deprived areas use WriteToThem as much or more than people from better off areas. You can read his full paper on the subject here.
Deprivation Measure of Users of WriteToThem.com in England (PDF) - Sam Smith, April 2007
Which elected body* has the most responsive members?
(* and the House of Lords)
| Rank | Elected body | Response rate (in 2 to 3 weeks) * | People writing for first time † | Messages sent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Welsh Assembly Members | 67% (160 out of 240) | 67% (153 out of 230) | 669 |
| 2. | House of Commons | 61% (23,773 out of 38,999) | 52% (19,579 out of 37,356) | 62,035 |
| 3. | London Assembly Members | 60% (143 out of 237) | 61% (136 out of 223) | 853 |
| 4. | Councillors | 52% (2,573 out of 4,971) | 68% (3,164 out of 4,634) | 11,132 |
| 5. | Members of the European Parliament | 47% (543 out of 1,155) | 45% (496 out of 1,096) | 6,380 |
| 6. | Members of the Scottish Parliament | 38% (261 out of 678) | 54% (349 out of 645) | 2,117 |
| 7. | Northern Ireland Assembly Members | 34% (12 out of 35) | 66% (21 out of 32) | 100 |
| 8. | House of Lords | 25% (456 out of 1,800) | 43% (717 out of 1,670) | 4,217 |
| Total / average | 58% (27,921 out of 48,115) | 54% (24,615 out of 45,886) | 87,503 |
Note: The Northern Ireland Assembly was added to
WriteToThem.com in February 2006, so figures are for only part of the year.
* Measured by survey of all users, asking 2 to 3 weeks after sending the message
if they have got a response yet.
† Measured by survey of all users, asking if this is the first time they
have written to an elected representative of any kind.
Which party has the most responsive MPs?
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