Petitioning Royal Mail!

[Leon]

Thanks for the post, good to hear from you, and thanks for all the info and work at your end. 

The FSB advice is very interesting, and will be of help when it comes to getting some data from them on how many breakages/leakages they've had previously.  I'm very interested in the rumour you mention as well, and I've tried to do some digging on that, but nothing concrete seems to be out there.  We'd really need someone down in the Essex (?) area who knows of any auctions/sales of that type who could verify that they were re-directed confiscated goods or not.

I'm not sure how much impact contacting the MP's will have, due to the privatisation of RM, our smaller issue getting onto their radar and their daily workload of regular stuff, but it's always worth a try.  The opposition MP's are always looking for a stick to beat their counterparts with, so you never know.  If some of the local newspapers can pick up on the story as well, that might get a lot more coverage for us.

One large market which is yet to fully get on board is the artists, as I don't think they've seen any direct effect at their end yet.  If we can tap into that, there's potentially 100's of thousands of extra people, giving a lot more sway on a political level as well.

[Russell Phillips]

1. Write to your local MP, using the template which can be found on our new Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/PostOurPaint/posts/245576305607450 (modify it to suit if you wish).  A full list of UK MP's listed by their consituency can be found here: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/?sort=1  If you get a response, please let us know on the Facebook page, or by email to me directly at leonpengilley@hotmail.com

A couple of points about this:

1. Don't just copy & paste the text from Facebook. By all means use it for inspiration, but use your own words. WriteToThem has a quote from a parliamentary researcher (whose job is to make the MP he/she works for as accessible as possible) about why in their FAQ:

MPs rather naturally take a sudden influx of identical or similar messages with a large pinch of salt, since they know that what they are seeing is stuff from a minority of constituents who are either impassioned/neurotic about the topic concerned or who are easily gulled into agreeing with some plausible story and sending the message, since it takes minimum effort to do so.

Given a daily mailbag of (say) 50 individual messages from individual constituents, on a wide range of topics, when the mailbag suddenly rises to 100 a day, 50 of which are much the same as each other, the representative has no way at all of knowing whether the message concerned is representative of opinion in the constituency.

All he or she knows is that 50 constituents have been persuaded to mail them about 'topic X'. Much more notice is taken of trends within the regular flow of messages from clearly identified constituents. If in a month 50 people write in different ways and through different routes with similar views on a subject, this is much more likely to raise the profile of the topic with the MP.

Full FAQ entry at https://www.writetothem.com/about-qa#formletters

WriteToThem is a website set up to make it easy for people to contact their MP. If you want to write to your MP about this, it's an excellent resource: https://www.writetothem.com/

The same people made WhatDoTheyKnow, a website that makes it easier to make freedom of information requests, which may be useful in the near future: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

[Steve J]

I noticed that this issue has made it to the mainstream realms of printed media:

http://henrys-wargaming.co.uk/?p=1542

[Leon]

I noticed that this issue has made it to the mainstream realms of printed media:

http://henrys-wargaming.co.uk/?p=1542

Excellent, looking forward to seeing my name in print (albeit missing the 'e' in Pengilley!)

[petercooman]

Today the printed press, tomorrow the world!!!   

[fsn]

Excellent, looking forward to seeing my name in print (albeit missing the 'e' in Pengilley!)

"Pngilley"?

[Steve J]

More like 'Pngilly' surely?

[goat major]

is it a silent Png ?

[sebigboss79]

 

[Fenton]

Just looked I think they corrected your name..Well I am presuming you are still using the common spelling of Pengilly.That would be correct Sir Leon wouldnt it

[Leon]

Just looked I think they corrected your name..Well I am presuming you are still using the common spelling of Pengilly.That would be correct Sir Leon wouldnt it

We're using the re-located-tin-miner, lost-in-translation, can't-spell-in-the-19th-century spelling with the 2nd e, so 'Pengilley'.  The original Cornish surname doesn't have it in.

[sebigboss79]

On a sidenote my Pendraken orders (with paints) arrived this very moment. Leon (or one of his clones) dutifully packed the 4 pots into a separate plastic bag to avoid ANY hard feelings by the postal service.

Sidenote to the sidenote: I fail to fathom how much paint might leak from a Jiffybag but being german I apparently lack the imagination. The only thing left to wonder if Leon will charge me for that bag and moreover if he wants it back 

[Leon]

Good to hear it arrived OK, we're packing all the paints in little gripseals now just to keep RM happy...

[Luddite]

That's privatisation for you.

[sebigboss79]

Oooops Luddite...I mistook it for "plain stupid and getting caught".