Epetitions - please help

[Boddie]

A friend of mine, Ed Stafford, recently walked the length of the Amazon to raise awareness of rainforest deforestation amongst other issues.

Ed is currently giving talks about his experience, again in an effort to raise awareness.

His guide for the walk, Cho, a local who gave up over a year of his life to help Ed, with little financial reward, has been denied a visa to talk with Ed in the UK.

I was hoping to set up an epetition but see the Government has withdrawn the service.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks


Andrew

[eeyore]

petitions are a waste of time anyway , because - little known fact alert - the govt/civil service counts one pice of corespondence as one complaint regardless of how many names are on it

a better way is to put a proforma letter of complaint on your website (Or where ever gives you greatest pleasure) and ask people to sign it and send it seperately either by post or email - and also to copy it to thier MP - enough copies recieved by MPs may lead to questions in the house and thus actually a greater chance of some action, rather than the correspondence just beeing circular filed at the home office.

[Boddie]

They haven't given a reason yet Pete. Ed only just found out

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Boddie

They haven't given a reason yet Pete. Ed only just found out

Ed could (should) make a freedom of information act request for the file. Apart from hopefully providing useful ammo this will also "draw a line in the sand" and make it clear to the bureacrat concerned that the issue isnt going away quietly.

The civil service is looking at a lot nof job cuts in the next year - and no one wants to be the subject of a high profile drawn out complaint

[thunder]

Originally Posted by eeyore

petitions are a waste of time anyway , because - little known fact alert - the govt/civil service counts one pice of corespondence as one complaint regardless of how many names are on it

a better way is to put a proforma letter of complaint on your website (Or where ever gives you greatest pleasure) and ask people to sign it and send it seperately either by post or email - and also to copy it to thier MP - enough copies recieved by MPs may lead to questions in the house and thus actually a greater chance of some action, rather than the correspondence just beeing circular filed at the home office.

Even better - get people to write their own letter (based on a set of facts that you give them) - that will have even more impact than lots of copies of exactly the same letter. Get the recipients to know that you really care about the issue and have invested some time in it - it's too easy to just forward a form letter.

henrya

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by thunder

Even better - get people to write their own letter (based on a set of facts that you give them) - that will have even more impact than lots of copies of exactly the same letter. Get the recipients to know that you really care about the issue and have invested some time in it - it's too easy to just forward a form letter.

henrya

well there is that - tho you have to balance that with the number of people who will bother if you dont make it easy for them

[SpikyPhasmid]

Boddie, the written visa refusal should have a reason on it. It may be perfunctory, but it should be there - it might even be a list of possible reasons, with one ticked. Do you know what kind of visa the guy applied for - general tourist visa, or business, or whatever?