I’ve received a host of ‘write-ins’ recently. These are identical emails, originally from a single source, where the sender is supposed to write in their own details and the name of their MP (although often enough the sender hasn’t followed the instruction and “Dear [insert name of MP here]” remains at the top.
I’ve never really worked out how important they are to those who send them and there are often far too many to reply to. When someone sends me a letter, I can be sure that the effort of writing it, purchasing a stamp and going to the post box is a measure of the importance of the issue to the sender. This is clearly not of the same order as clicking with your mouse on a link that generates an email Identical to thousands of others.
On occasion, when I have replied, I’ve had a response from the sender saying that they had no recollection of sending me an email at all. Recently, I got a reply from a lady telling me that her email account had been hacked and was being used without her knowledge or consent.
I can quite understand my New Forest neighbour Sir Julian Lewis MP and his decision not to entertain email correspondence at all.
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
