Write to your MP about Trident Replacement

Draft letter and suggestions for meeting with your MP

• Posted on Feb 27, 2007

The Westminster Parliament is responsible Nuclear weapons. It is your MP’s job to listen to your concerns. S/he is not your delegate and does not have to do as you say, but s/he is your representative and should listen to you.

Find out who your MP is at www.locata.co.uk/commons write to them at The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA. You can use email but letters are better at getting a response. You should always firstly write to your MP on an issue rather than to a department or to any Minister. On Trident you can write to the Secretary of State for Defence or the Prime Minister but you would only be guaranteed a response from your own constituency MP

Below is a draft letter, but it is better to try and make your point in your own words. Politicians will often give you a standard response, and we cannot complain about receiving a standard response if we have sent a standard letter.

When writing to your MP, identify yourself as a constituent, and request a reply

Ask to have a meeting with your MP. It is best to make an appointment rather than to turn up at a MPs surgery. You might want to meet your MP with others from your Justice and Peace group or from your parish. You should ensure that there re at least two of you at such a meeting; one person should take notes so that you can follow up any action points with your MP at a later date.

Dear Name MP

I am writing to you as a constituent to raise my concerns about the future of the Trident Nuclear Missile System.

I support the statements of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland which have called upon the Government not to invest in a replacement for the Trident system but instead to begin the process of decommissioning these weapons with the intention of diverting the sums spent on nuclear weaponry to programmes of aid and development. For your information I enclose a copy of the statement of the Bishops’ Conference from April 2006. [Available on our website]

There will be vote in the House of Commons in March on the issue of replacing the Trident Nuclear Missile System as your constituent I urge you to vote against such a replacement. I would be grateful to hear how you intend to vote.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours sincerely

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