Zoom. WhatsApp. Email. Slack. We live in an era of instant communication where it’s never been easier to connect. Need to present to a conference in Australia without leaving your kitchen in Manchester? Open up Zoom. Want to message the Prime Minister while sat on your sofa? Tweet @10DowningStreet.
Yet for all the immediacy of our virtual age, there’s something to be said for old-fashioned meetings held in person. A few years ago social scientists conducted an experiment – reported on in the Harvard Business Review – that found that making requests of strangers in person was 34 times more effective than making exactly the same request sent via email.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that research recently as Zero Hour launched its new 100 Days campaign.
Our aim is to encourage the new Labour government to get behind the Climate and Nature (CAN) Bill in its first 100 days in office (mid-October). To do this we’re focussing on an exciting opportunity, the Parliamentary Private Member’s Ballot Bill process that is happening this September (if you’re interested in the nerdy side of Parliamentary procedure, check out this fascinating blog by my colleague Felix Sanctuary)
The ballot bill process selects twenty MPs at random and gives them an opportunity to fast-track any piece of legislation of their choice and progress it. Obviously, we’d like them to prioritise the CAN Bill!
Using this process, our aim is to help the CAN Bill move through its parliamentary stages, with allocated time, on the path to becoming law. With the UK’s science-backed, internationally-agreed 2030 climate and nature targets bearing down on us – and no credible plan in place to meet them – time is of the essence.
A key part of our strategy revolves around asking campaigners to set up in-person meetings with their MPs. As they enter the ballot bill process, we want MPs to hear from constituents like you why the CAN Bill matters. To help campaigners, we have a powerful letter to MPs from over 800 leading UK climate and nature scientists outlining why they urgently need to back the CAN Bill.
We know that meeting your MP in person is more time consuming – and perhaps nerve wracking! – than simply firing off an email to them. But we’ve found that there are huge benefits to a face-to-face conversation.
When I met my new-in-post MP last week, we had a wide-ranging chat about the climate and nature crisis, the new government’s ambition to tackle it, and the science-backed targets underpinning the CAN Bill.
Sitting across the table from my MP gave me a chance to respond to her questions and concerns during the ebb and flow of a conversation, something that would never be achievable via email. Rather than sending an email into the void, I was able to strike up a real, human relationship and respond in real-time to her queries and points. She pledged to talk to her whip about the CAN Bill – a real win.
In our recent ‘How To Engage With Your MP’ online training session, we outlined the practicalities of arranging a meeting with your MP and the value of doing this whether or not they’re a CAN Bill supporter (in many ways, if your MP already supports the Bill, a face-to-face meeting asking them to champion it during the ballot bill process is even more useful than if they don’t).
One of the key pieces of advice we gave to campaigners was that meeting your MP doesn’t need to be daunting. Our MPs are elected to represent us and listen to our views. These meetings aren’t adversarial – there is no need to ‘win’ an argument with your MP. Just attending a meeting, telling them you’re worried about the climate and nature crisis, and would like them to champion the CAN Bill is a victory.
Interactions like this – made all the more memorable because it’s in person rather than via email – are what has helped push the CAN Bill up the agenda. During the general election campaigners like you across the UK raised the Bill with candidates over and over again. You wrote emails, you talked about the CAN Bill on the doorstop, you asked questions at hustings.
Taken together all those interactions added up to the biggest push of support for the CAN Bill in Westminster we’ve ever seen. Just by talking about the CAN Bill – relentlessly! – you ensured that we now have more MPs, more organisations, and more scientists supporting the Bill than ever before.
If one of your MPs is among the twenty chosen during the ballot bill process this autumn, you’ll have a brilliant opportunity to help us get the CAN Bill debated in Parliament. Even if your MP isn’t picked, they can still help convince and support those who are. Between now and October there is lots to play for.
By meeting your MP in-person, talking to them about why the Bill matters for you and your constituency, and sharing our urgent letter from 800 scientists with them, you’ll help us make MPs of all parties realise that the time for the CAN Bill is now.
We know that MPs are frequently juggling competing demands – dealing with urgent, vital casework in their constituencies is a key part of the job. But they’re also responsible for voting on big, international issues of policy that set the agenda for the next five, ten, twenty years.
By talking to your MP about the CAN Bill, you’ll help focus their minds on what is arguably the biggest issue in their inbox. As the 800+ scientists who’ve signed our letter make clear, the climate and nature crisis underpins everything.
When you meet your MP, you can ask them ‘If not now, when? If not you, who?’ and you can hear their answer for yourself.
If you’d like to meet your MP, we are here to support you. You can find out more in our special campaigner guide, our ‘How To Engage With Your MP’ training video, or download our powerful letter from over 1000 UK scientists. If you have any questions please drop us a line at [email protected]
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