This website has been created to
provide an opportunity to read copies of letters by A.Citizen (a
nom de plume). that have been sent to the Prime Minister of the UK of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland.
The idea for the website has arisen
partly because of either puzzling action or inaction by the Right Honourable Ladies
and Gentlemen of the House of Commons and the Lords and Ladies of the
House of Lords over various matters. The usual letter of
complaint to one's MP to initiate change is of little use if the matter has
no particular party champion, in fact, all parties may have a
similar view. Perhaps they are all wrong!
Letters to the PM
The Prime Minister would not normally
personally reply to a letter from a member of the public as he receives
thousands of letters a week. However, the Office of the Prime Minister
does reply to all mail. Letters to the PM are managed by The Direct
Communication Unit. This is quite an apt title, to imagine that it may be
possible to communicate directly with our prime minister is a feature of our
democracy that needs to be preserved. I believe that letters to the PM are
valued, they provide a link with the public and an opportunity to gather
ideas. Whilst my letters, like other letters, are dealt with by the
appropriate department or even departments, where necessary the department that replies to my letter- if
necessary, will receive a reply from me, and my reply will not be published
until I am sure that the person I am writing to (or department)
has received my letter. Sometimes just responding to the letter may be made
directly on this web site. The prime minister can also be emailed and it is
possible to create and sign petitions on the Number Ten website, which is
well worth a visit:
http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp
Sometimes my views are just made known to the
government office eg. Home Office, otherwise a reply will published.
A. Citizen intends to publish all of his correspondence to the PM on
the website. Except any letters of a personal nature. Please note that I do
not have the resources of the government to respond to letters, but my
letters do receive a reply within a reasonable time frame. I need to
apologise if I can not reply promptly.
This website was published early in
2006.
Our UK Government
The UK has a government that
is elected by the people, every four years. The decisions that may be made by the government
are subject to a majority of members of the House of Commons voting for or
against a motion. The composition of the members is divided between the
political party in power and the opposition. All members of parliament are
elected. The discussion of
matters of concern is carried out in the House of Commons. The decisions of the House
of Commons are also subject to the House of Lords (and ladies!) some of
which have a hereditary title. For a much better description of the nature
of government in the UK visit the following link:
http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page18.asp. or
http://www.parliament.uk. The
UK Government websites are of excellent quality and every effort appears to
have been made to make documents easily available for public use. It must be
remembered that the decisions made by the government of our country are, as
far as possible, the result of a consensus.
Copyright
All material in this website is copyright.
Selected letters may be published elsewhere in printed journals and
newspapers and web based journals if publishers are prepared to pay
their usual journalists rates to the charity, Cancer Research UK and the letter(s)
and correspondence on that particular topic is published in its entirety or
acknowledged as a quotation from a lengthier document. Link to:
www.cancerresearchuk.org