Write To Your TD
October 7th, 2009 | Published in sprints | 6 Comments
If you are like me, you occassionaly get riled up by the state of this country and if you are slightly more self actualising you might actually attend a rally or chain yourself to a fence or something. Of course you could just write a letter. Much more effective than another email in your local TD’s spam folder.
Stamps are fiddly things of course and this is where writetoyourtd.ie comes into its own. Surf on over and rant your little heart out. Some suggested topics include:
- NAMA
- Broadband penetration
- the state of your footpath outside your house
Whatever you want to complain about can now be backed up with a reassuring physical letter that Richard himself will print off and post for you. I helped put the code together and it includes a list of TD’s to get mad at including their addresses. For €2.50 it’ll be in the post the next working day. I think there is an extra charge for delivering it by brick.
PS: I take no responsability for the design. Richard got his graphic design qualificaiton while completing a Comp. Sci. masters. Need I say more.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:41 am (#)
[...] Via James Kennedy – Write to Your TD. [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 8:01 am (#)
do faxes still trump email, could you make an old school email to fax form?
October 8th, 2009 at 1:57 pm (#)
Interesting idea. I think there are actually Email to Fax gateways out there. I’ll have to check to see if we have their fax details. I guess we could just fax them to Leinster House.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:15 pm (#)
The initial idea is that TD cannot refuse to respond to a letter. So, the theory goes, if there is a reasonable uptake on a certain letter, then the TD (or multiple TDs) get a raft of letters that they cannot avoid.
The template system allows a cause to send us a template that details the cause exactly, while still allowing the sender to put their own mark on it if they want to.
I can’t imagine TD’s using fax much anymore and letters are much harder to ignore than faxes or email.
That’s not discounting anything. Give us enough interest and we can add pretty any functionality
Cheers
Richard
October 16th, 2009 at 9:44 am (#)
This is very welcome, and congratulations to RG, but not necessarily for the reason given.
I know of no reason that a “TD cannot refuse to respond to a letter”, and the scenario painted by RG in his comment is why. TDs could, and probably would, be further pestered by cranks than they already are. More letter-writing is not what I want my TD to be doing.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:58 pm (#)
Hi Fergus,
I guess that they can refuse a letter, but it is a lot harder to deny the existance of a physical letter than an email, wouldn’t you say?
I simply feel that in our society, posted letters carry more importance than email or any other form of electronic communications.
I am not suggesting that I welcome crank letters being sent to TD’s, I am merely suggesting that the weight of public opinion can be shown by way of a large number of letters carrying the same theme/message.
We hear a lot of the same arguments and sniping at policiticians in the pub, on the radio and elsewhere. I had hoped that this website would get people to put there money where their mouth is, and attempt to voice their concerns properly.
Cheers
Richard