Reply from Downing Street
Electoral Reform, Letters May 24th, 2005
Downing Street have responded to my letter about electoral reform.
The Prime Minister has asked me to thank you for your recent letter.
Mr Blair would like to reply personally, but as you will appreciate he receives many thousands of letters each week and this is not possible.
The matter you raise is the responsibility of the Department for Constitutional Affairs, therefore he has asked that your letter be forwarded to that Department so that they are also aware of your views.
Yours sincerely
KIMBERLEY WELLS
Or in other words: ‘The prime minister hasn’t seen your letter, when we say he asked that it be forwarded we didn’t mean your letter precisely, but rather that he left an instruction not to bother him with these things. In this way he can have the honestly held belief that people aren’t concerned with this issue’.
Or is that overly cynical?
Still listening, Tony?
P.S. I’m not naïve enough to assume that he would reply personally, but I do resent the implication that the PM has read the letter without actually saying he has explicitly. If he has read a letter include ‘The Prime Minister read your letter and asked me….’, if not, use the above form to give that impression without saying so..
Things that interest me… 
I had had precisely the same experience when I wrote ‘to the PM’ about the way the electoral review, promised in 2001, had been scuppered by the same tribalists who scuppered Jenkins. I received - word for word - the same letter. Your will in due course receive a letter from the DCA which will be equally evasive and unhelpful! They must turn out thousands of them.
Ground swell, what ground swell?
I think your level of cynicism is pretty spot on.
I’m expecting my reply any day now. I wonder how similar it will be.
I also sent a letter to Lord Falconer regarding his appearance on the Today programme. It was mentioned on MVC. I wondered if you had done the same?
I haven’t sent a letter to Lord Falconer, but then, I didn’t hear him on the Today Programme.
If he was the 8:10 interview I should be able to hear him when I listen to the podcast.
(Incidentally, in your typekey settings you have two http:// in the URL. For whatever reason I cannot fix this in the above comment)
I’m not sure what time it was on at, I listened via link on Today website. It’s another classic bit of stonewalling.
And I see Prescott’s going to be head of the electoral reform committee. There’s some grass that just couldn’t get any longer.
(Not sure what happened with the two http’s, it’s a bit odd.)
It was 7:30am, last friday.
When I gather my thoughts, a letter may well go his way.
Prescott, a man who is indeed known for his thoughtfulness, open-mindedness and his ability to take on new ideas.