The prospect of meeting your MP can be a little daunting. You may know things about them from the local or national press, you may not. If not a quick search on the internet will fill you in with the basics. MP’s usually have their own website so it’s not too difficult to get an idea of what they are about.
Over the years my MP (Mike Hancock – Lib Dem Portsmouth South) has had quite a lot of articles about him in the national press for various reasons. He has also done a lot for the local community and whatever your personal views it’s fair to say he does work hard at being an MP. He is also quite approachable and fairly easy to have a down to earth chat with.
The process of getting to meet my MP started about 2 years ago when I signed up for the Political Lobbying Training with Greenpeace. After a nice train ride from Portsmouth to Bristol (paid for by Greenpeace along with the free lunch!) we had a full days training. This covered: what to expect, how to prepare to meet your MP and strategies for when you are at the meeting. What was really useful was first hand experience from experienced lobbyists and a chance to do a bit of role-play. Actually the role-play was really important as it gave you a chance to experiment before the real thing. I particularly liked the section on pairing up and the other person being as awkward as possible to you as you were interviewing them and what that felt like. All good stuff for meeting your MP. There was a lot covered in the day and plenty of chance to ask questions. You also get a comprehensive pack in case you forget anything.
Last Saturday it was time to meet Mike again, this time on the Energy Bill. Something, which I have lobbied him about previously, again for Greenpeace. As I have had a fair bit of contact with him over the last few years (letters, emails and meetings) you do build up a relationship. We had a few moments of general chat around his current health and I reminded him about previous visits and what we had discussed and then it was straight to the task at hand.
Luckily having read the Greenpeace briefing (which you always get) and having done a bit of research and preparation I had all the main points at my disposal – just in case your mind goes blank! I asked him outright about his views on renewables, hidden nuclear subsidies, the green economy and importantly would he write on his behalf to Nick Clegg and Ed Davey about a legally binding commitment to decarbonise the UK’s power supply.
The long and short of it was he said yes. He would write on his behalf and my behalf on the issues I mentioned from the briefing and I also gave him a copy of a joint NGO document (also supplied by Greenpeace and written jointly by a number of NGO’s).
Essentially I was in there for about 15/20 minutes – so it’s not long and you need to be focussed and keep bringing the message home to your MP as they can go off course randomly.
If you fancy meeting your MP and want some help in doing this then sign up for the Greenpeace course and you are on your way.
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/lobbying
Also remember what you are helping to achieve. If the entire lobbyist network are lobbying their MP's this goes a long way in helping to counteract big business and governments lobbying against what we are trying to achieve. It’s not over yet, not this time!
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