I wish I could say the idea of writing to politicians being an exercise in sado-masochistic behaviour was "entirely" a joke.

People always seem to have this idealistic idea that it's a worthwhile endeavour, but they generally tend to forget the basic fact of political life - to stay employed, politicians do what looks popular, what's "right" is only a vague idea they toss aside the first time they see negative opinion poll results.

No-one wants to do something that will put them out of a job, politicians aren't somehow more "ethical" in that respect than anyone else.  One letter makes no difference to their opinion of how popular they are - neither does a thousand, or a million, because politicians know that less than half of those letters will actually translate into votes come "job evaluation" time, and of the ones that do, more than half of those people will have either forgotten all about the issue, or will let themselves be blindly led along by the nose..

So contacting these parasites on society ends up being nothing more than an attempt to assuage your own guilt at not doing anything worthwhile - anyone with sense knows that the most they're going to get back is a vague appreciation for commenting and how their thoughts will be noted, and that's it.

Hence - it's a sado-masochistic exercise :)

Disclaimer: Some people claim I may be a tad cynical when it comes to my opinions regarding those semi-evolved pseudo-simian sacks of putrescent protoplasmic slime who make political pundits appear to be productive members of society by comparison that call themselves politicians.

Ya think??