Lobby

Our political representatives have an obligation to represent the interests and concerns of everyone in their constituency, whether or not you voted for them - their job is to be the link between you and the government. Individuals and small groups can lobby influential figures as successfully as large organisations: if we can demonstrate that change is wanted, needed and supported by our communities, influential figures will have to listen to our requests - even if they disagree with them. Basically, lobbying is an adult form of pester power!

[edit] how to lobby?

Your job is to make sure that your MP

• is informed about the issue
• understands your position
• becomes convinced that your position is the one they should adopt.

As well as asking for general support on the issue, you can ask your MP to

• ask a written or oral parliamentary question (PQ)
• initiate a short debate in the House of Commons
• speak in a government debate
• sign or initiate an early day motion (EDM) showing support for a plastic bag ban
• table an amendment to a bill
• use their position on a relevant committee to support a ban on plastic bags
• vote for or against an amendment to a bill
• propose a private member's or ten minute rule bill
• write to a minister - MPs will receive a response from a minister whilst a member of the public will usually only receive a letter from a civil servant. The more letters that a minister receives from MPs, the more their attention will be drawn to your concern.

The best way to start is to write to or fax your MP asking for their support for a ban on the distribution of free, single-use plastic bags. Mass email campaigns are not effective and can put backs up, which is why we don't include one as a part of this site. An intelligent, informed, polite and yet passionate letter, preferably in your own words, is the best way to start. If you don't feel confident to write your own letter from scratch, you can download a form letter on this page - but we strongly advise you to use it only as a template and to put it into your own words, otherwise it may not be read (if you don't believe or understand this, click here to read more). Once you've begun a correspondence, keep it up!

If you can gather a few people together to form a local group, perhaps with the aim of creating a Plastic Bag Free Zone, it can be very effective to organise a meeting with your MP, either in your own community, in the MP's surgery or even at the House of Commons (and if you can get someone from the local media to cover the meeting, so much the better).

Find out who your local MP is and how to contact them. You can use the same site to find one of more members of the House of Lords who have an interest in plastic bags - click here and enter 'plastic bags' in the search box.

Download a form letter to send to your MP (print friendly format).