MP E-mail Wizard

I’ve avoided using or even looking at the e-mail wizard the Campaign for Civil Unions has been promoting, partly because I have been doubtful how much of a good idea it is to mass e-mail MPs.

I am actually the former staffer who managed to convince some very sceptical Ministers in 1997 to allow people to e-mail them and have a public e-mail address. So I feel guilty when an issue drives their inboxes to overflowing.

Having now looked at the wizard, I must say it is actually a very smart piece of work. Instead of just sending a form letter to every MP, it allows you to either choose an indiviudal MP, a group of MPs from a particular party who voted either yes or no, or all 120 MPs.

It also allows you to write your own e-mail, use some key lines from their campaign, or do a semi-form e-mail. They can tailor e-mails based on your religion, sexuality, race etc.

I am definitely impressed with the sophistication compared to merely having a form which bcc’s to 120 e-mail addresses.

Having said that I am still not a huge fan of mass e-mails to MPs. Basically it so swamps their inboxes that they don’t get to read any of it. I understand that if one side is e-mailing there is a need to balance things up, but it is a pity there is not a better way of doing it. However if one is to mass e-mail MPs, the CUB Campaign wizard is a pretty sophisticated way to do it.