This page dates from 19th September 2007.

Apologies, we are having some problems with WriteToThem not working properly. We're looking into it and will hopefully get it fixed soon.

We welcome donations to help keep things running. Learn more about mySociety.

Update 1:21pm We're in touch with easyJet, who have apologised and are offering to make a donation to the charity which runs WriteToThem. We're working on getting the site back up, our apologies as well! — Francis, mySociety

The problems are due to a large volume of traffic from easyJet asking its customer base to spam MPs with a copy-and-pasted message (read our guidelines on why we ask people not to do this). Most of the identical messages will be stopped by our filters, and the site is currently unavailable for people to write to their politicians – boo.

We have nothing against easyJet customers expressing their views to politicians, we just ask that for the sake of MPs, constituents and the campaign itself that these are expressed in their own words. And, oh yes, if you are a massive multinational company, it would be quite nice to offer a little something to the charity that is giving you a free service.

This would obviously happen on my birthday!

— Matthew, mySociety

## Quote from Guidelines

1. Do not give people text to paste into their messages.
   Spamming lots of representatives with near-identical messages is definitely bad behaviour in our book. Please be aware that if you do this, most of the duplicate messages will be filtered out automatically and will never get to the representatives. We will let all the people who sent identikit messages know that their messages have been blocked, and we will tell them that it is because you broke our terms and conditions. All you will achieve is irritation amongst your own supporters. (More information.) Instead, provide a short list of points which people should address in their own words. Messages written by individuals will never be blocked by our systems unless they are clearly abusive or break our conditions of use.
2. If you're talking to a very large audience, please try to let us know in advance.
   If you're going to mention WriteToThem.com in a campaign which reaches tens of thousands of people at once, please let us know first! If our servers can't cope, it breaks your campaign. With a few days notice, we can make this much less likely.

## Quote from FAQ

Why shouldn't I copy and paste "form" letters?

  We know your issue is important to you, but we've spoken to representatives — and if you are not a constituent, or you send a "copied and pasted" form letter, your message will go straight into the bin.

  If you're a pressure group, please think about what you're doing. If you encourage all your members to write to the same representative, you will not show that representative the depth of support for your issue. We now block large form letter campaigns sent to individuals, but even if we did let through your mail, we know from experience that you'll simply have used up a few sheets of tax-funded paper, and irritated an underpaid secretary or researcher. And if you encourage your supporters to all send the same rote letter to different representatives, the recipients may well just assume that all the correspondence has come from the same person with a list of addresses. Then they'll ignore you, whereas if you'd asked people to write to their own representatives in their own words, you'd be ahead of the game.

  Still not convinced? Here's a quote from a Parliamentary researcher, whose job is to make the MP he/she works for as accessible as possible (such people are the hidden gems of our democracy):

  > MPs rather naturally take a sudden influx of identical or similar messages with a large pinch of salt, since they know that what they are seeing is stuff from a minority of constituents who are either impassioned/neurotic about the topic concerned or who are easily gulled into agreeing with some plausible story and sending the message, since it takes minimum effort to do so.

  > Given a daily mailbag of (say) 50 individual messages from individual constituents, on a wide range of topics, when the mailbag suddenly rises to 100 a day, 50 of which are much the same as each other, the representative has no way at all of knowing whether the message concerned is representative of opinion in the constituency.

  > All he or she knows is that 50 constituents have been persuaded to mail them about 'topic X'. Much more notice is taken of trends within the regular flow of messages from clearly identified constituents. If in a month 50 people write in different ways and through different routes with similar views on a subject, this is much more likely to raise the profile of the topic with the MP.

## Email from easyJet

Demand a more intelligent approach to aviation

There is no doubt that climate change is a real and imminent danger which should be a concern for us all. We all have the responsibility to take intelligent and well thought-out actions to ensure we leave the planet in a good shape for generations to come.

However, much of the recent political debate has been characterised by gesture politics and discriminatory, often contradictory proposals. Politicians of all colours recognise that different cars have different emissions but do not see the same distinction within air travel.

We are an island nation in a globalised economy yet the UK already taxes flying more heavily than any other European country while making high-speed rail available only to those living in the South East. The time has come to scrap APD air tax and move the burden of taxation from passengers to aircraft emissions. Taxing families but not private jets is a grotesque insult.

It is time for us all to demand a more intelligent approach to flying. Politicians must incentivise consumers to take the greener option when it is available - this means banning the dirty, old aircraft from our skies; getting the right tax regime in place to reward cleaner behaviour; being realistic about the value of aviation and resisting the temptation to advocate alternatives when no such alternatives exist.

We urge you to write to your MP. It will only take two minutes to tell the politicians you demand a more informed and intelligent approach to aviation.

Step 1) Go to www.writetothem.com

Step 2) Type in your post code.

Step 3) Chose your MP (and any other politician you feel should get the message)

Step 4) Add your name and address and copy this message into the blank field:

"Dear Politician,

I agree with easyJet that it's time for politicians to be more intelligent when it comes to flying and climate change. You should be encouraging people to fly in cleaner aircraft - just like you advocate for cars.

It is time to ban the oldest, dirtiest aircraft in the sky. It would be easy to do and would have a big impact.

It is wrong to tax families but not private jets and cargo. Air Passenger Duty should be reformed to tax aircraft emissions - those that pollute the most should pay the most. UK air travellers already pay more tax than any other country in Europe.

You and your party should not hesitate to encourage aircraft technology developments. Air travel could be 50% cleaner within 10 years.

You should urge people and your colleagues to act responsibly - to fly with those airlines that have new aircraft, high passenger loads and fewer emissions. More questions should be asked in Parliament about the efficiency of transport modes used for Government business.

Even if you feel there is little you can do to influence this debate, make sure you read 'the facts about aviation emissions'. The more MPs are aware of the facts, the greater the ability of our country to take the lead in aviation emissions. The interests of air travellers in your constituency will be best served by having an informed political debate on the intelligent solutions to managing aviation emissions.

This is important to your constituency. Please let me know what actions you and your party will be taking."