Sample letters
Writing a letter to your MP can be as simple as editing and printing a sample letter
and can be done in as little as 5 minutes. However, if you have more time to spare
we would encourage you to express your views in your own words even if you use the
sample letters as a starting point.
See the notes below on
downloading files
Stage 1:
Be sure that you know the name of your MP. If you are not sure of the name
of your MP look refer to the directory of MPs on the parliament web site
Stage 2:
UKMA offers some sample letters. Some talk in general terms about getting out of
the current mess. Others focus on specific issues:
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<your address>
<date>
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<your MP's name> MP
House of Commons
LONDON
SW1A 0AA
Dear <your MP's name>
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Britain's measurement mess |
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I am writing to you to express my concerns about Britain’s measurement unit
mess. The fact that Britain seems to have stopped its conversion from imperial to
metric at the halfway point is totally different from what any other country and
wasteful.
I am concerned about this mess for a number of reasons including:
- I often cannot compare the prices of goods in shops because some price in metric
while others in imperial. This undermines my rights as a consumer.
- I find it confusing that my car handbook uses metric dimensions while road signs
are usually in imperial.
- I can’t easily work out fuel consumption in either litres/100 km or miles
per gallon when fuel is sold in litres and road distances are indicated in miles.
- Children’s education is being undermined because in many cases it cannot be
applied outside the school gate. For example weighing is taught with kilograms but
much of the media uses pounds and ounces.
- Most countries in the world including important trading partners in Asia, the Commonwealth
and Europe are metric. Most of Britain’s trade is with metric countries. Our
muddle undermines our competitiveness.
Going back to imperial is not an option and our current situation is an unacceptable
mess. Can I ask you to support the full adoption of the metric system in Britain
as soon as possible. Commonwealth countries such as Australia managed to convert
from imperial to metric within 10 years and have reaped significant benefits. Britain
has been converting for about 40 years and is nowhere near finished; we have had
the costs but not the benefits. It is time to sort out this mess with a decisive
conversion programme by the Government!
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Yours sincerely
<your name>
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Replace the <detail> text with the appropriate
details regarding you and your MP. Remember to use the same text colour (get rid
of coloured highlights and brackets) and to use your favourite font.
If you have the time, modify the letter to express the points in your own words;
it is always better to give examples from your own experiences and locality.
Stage 3:
Print the letter and put in an envelope addressed to
<your MP’s name> MP
House of Commons
LONDON
SW1A 0AA
Stage 4:
Post it and you are done!
On behalf of UKMA, thank you for your help.
Downloading the letters
Each letter can be downloaded in either Rich Text Format (.rtf) which is a standard
format that is readable by all modern word processing programs, or in plain text.
The following instructions apply to Internet Explorer but will probably work with
other browsers in a similar manner.
Click on the link to the required letter (from the above list or the left hand side
menu). This will open a window with the selected letter on its own.
Above the horizontal line near the top are two links on the right hand side. Move
the mouse cursor to the one for the required format and click the right mouse button.
A pop-up menu will appear. Select the "Save target as ..." option.
You will then be presented with a "save file" window allowing you to store it where
you like on your system with the given name or one of your choice.
Please also note the following:
- If you left-click the link instead of right-click as described above then subsequent
behaviour will depend on your individual computer set-up and what office type applications
you have installed. Typically it will open another browser window with the document
as content (without the section above the horizontal line).
- If you wish to work from a printed copy then the window containing the sample letter
will print out as it is from the browser. It has been formatted to ensure it will
fit onto an A4 sized page without clipping.