What do you expect to happen when you complain to your local MP?

Nobody likes fixers or people getting ahead through political connections except when it is they themselves complaining to their local MP about a grievance. Complaining to your local MP is democracy in action.

The right to petition for a government for the redress of grievances is the oldest right ever claimed by an Englishman. It appears in every major constitutional document back to Bill of Rights of 1688 and the Magna Carta.

The US 1st Amendment not only is the right of free speech guaranteed, the right to petition for the redress of grievances is set separately guaranteed.

Anyone who has ever complained to an MP expects something to be done. At a minimum, a letter written on a proper reply received.

MPs made and lost their careers when speaking up for constituents. More than a few MPs have come across on immigration correspondence. That perception is they are asking favours even when all they were doing was pointing out that this person has a good-looking resume, people of note voucher of them and we will then be a decision soon and if so by date.

MPs have mounted great crusades on the behalf of an aggrieved constituent or worthy cause. In the criminal justice area, these can range from a wrongful conviction to the abolition of capital punishment was restoration too.

When you go to an MP and complain about crime, poor local schools or inadequate health services, you expect something to improve as a result. Not all the time. But at least some of the time.

When I worked in the Australian Prime Minister’s department, special care was taken to identify any letter from the Prime Minister’s own electorate so that he would reply personally.

Either Prime Minister Hawke or his long time private secretary Jean Sinclair would reply to letters from children. Some of these letters from children asked surprisingly penetrating questions.

MPs routinely lobby for services for various constituents and other organisations they favour. An MP, particularly independent and minor party MPs routinely trade their votes or support in the governing party caucus for all sorts favours.

But we still hate people getting favours through connections despite that is democracy in action as long as money does not change hands into the back pocket of the MP. Vote buying is democracy in action.

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