Great news! Jonathan Reynolds, Labour and Co-operative MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, has submitted a Private Member’s Bill to the House of Commons to change our voting system to a proportional one (Additional Member System http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/additional-member-system). The bill is being presented on the 2nd December. This means we have to act fast to convince our MPs to vote for this bill. We believe that many Labour and Conservative MPs support electoral reform but have not yet come out in favour. We want to use this bill to make voting reform a big issue within Labour and the Conservatives, and make sure that SNP, Plaid, Green, Lib Dem and UKIP MPs show up to vote for it. A great tool to use to write to your MPs is https://www.writetothem.com/ Please write to your MP, no matter which party they represent, to find out their views on PR and ask them to support Jonathan Reynolds’ bill in the House of Commons. MPs have an obligation to reply to their constituents so we are hoping to find out the views of every MP in the country based on our emails. Once you receive a reply, please forward it to us so we can use the information to help with our campaigns. Our email address is votingreformteam@gmail.com Here is a sample letter which you can use as a guide, please feel free to personalise this letter and send it on! Dear X, The 2015 general election was the most disproportionate in British history. First Past the Post is a system that has proved itself to be outdated and is no longer fit for British elections. Democracy in the UK has been around for hundreds of years, but it has never been static. Our democracy is constantly evolving and improving. Will you support reforming our voting system so it is up to scratch in our modern democracy? Nearly half a million people have signed petitions calling for voting reform. A recent poll showed 74% of the electorate were in favour (http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/press-release/three-quarters-want-more-proportional-voting-system-new-poll-shows). That is a majority of Conservative, Labour, UKIP and Liberal Democrat voters. Our voting system is totally unrepresentative. UKIP and the Greens received five million votes between them, but only one seat each. The SNP have 95% seats in Scotland with just over half of the votes. I am writing to ask you to support Jonathan Reynolds’ Representation of the People (Proportional Representation) Bill to change our voting system from First Past the Post to AMS - a system which is already successfully used in Scotland, Wales and in London Assembly elections. Yours sincerely, X ---- Thank you for all of your support in our campaign, I look forward to hearing our elected representatives views on this topic! Owen Winter www.facebook.com/groups/votingreformteam/