We will be having a rally/demonstration on Monday 11th May 2009. Please muster at Whitehall Place (same as last year) by 1300. We will commence the march down Whitehall preceded by a piper and drum and lay a wreath at the Cenotaph.

On completion, we are asking everyone to then proceed to the House of Commons to lobby Members of Parliament. Again we are seeking the highest profile possible with the media.

All Members and Supporters - 16th April 2009

We appeal to you to once more bear down on your MP and get the current EDM well supported. I cannot emphasise how important it is for the success of our compaign. A pro forma letter and its appendix are available under Related Papers.

The letter and its appendix have been drawn-up as a guide to what might be written to your MP. It will need to be customised. If you have need of further help one of us will help with the letter. If you have a fellow member in your area then he/she may be able to help and/or jointly attend a meeting with your MP. There is a list of MPs who have already signed EDM 46 available on the Web. To check whether your MP has signed.

Google:

• EDM46 2008 Colin Challen
• Move down to and select EDM 46
• Check who has signed by scrolling down
• Note: you can get the list by party.

If he/she has signed then a letter of thanks together with a copy of the Appendix only would helpful.

If your MP has not signed then we urgently need him/her to reconsider. This is by no means a party issue although given the number of Conservative MPs who have thus far failed to sign makes one wonder whether there has been arm twisting within the Party against Conservatives signing.

You may be told that:

• Members of the shadow cabinet do not sign EDMs
• Members of committees do not sign EDMs
• EDMs have little or no relevance

Obviously if there is any indication that members of a party have been advised against signing we in the directorate need to know. It makes good Press for our cause. It cannot be emphasised how urgent it is that we press our claim through our MPs and that the AFPG directorate is given the opportunity to collate the responses that are received. Your letter, your contact with your MP is important.

We are planning a mass lobbying of MPs in May at the Palace of Westminster. To draw all 646 MPs into the lobby is over ambitious but we must try to get as many as possible to come down and meet their AFPG constituents. We would like 646 MPs to sign EDM 46. We really need over half the House to do so. Remember, following on from this there will again be press coverage.

We are getting somewhere and we need to push. In the last 3 years we have progressed without any additional calls for funding from the members other than the joining fee. In the previous campaign, in which AFPG was seemingly badly guided by the legal expert, the then members contributed around £650 each or a total of around £1.4M. We may now be operating not on a shoe-string budget but we are a much better co-ordinated group. With each member making his or her own contribution by way of letter to MP and/or attendance at meetings we will succeed. Let us get this next stage on the road. Let us insist that our respective MP either gives us his/her support or explains why he/she cannot do so.