General Election Imminent - write to your candidates

Message from Margaret Watts:

With a General Election imminent I feel it is important to rally the troops once again into writing to their sitting Member of Parliament and this time to all the prospective candidates. We have covered much ground since SWAPP began campaigning in 2002.  Politicians of all political parties are now talking of women’s pensions. This is quite ground breaking. Three years ago not much interest was shown.

In this an election year the women of this country have the perfect chance to make their voices heard.

For those of you who like to compose your own letters please do so but as many of you have suggested that I give you a sample letter that you can copy, I have done this below. You will note I have put I/we - this is to enable you to pass it on to friends or write a joint letter and all sign the bottom. If you do this please add an address for each signature.

Please take the time to do this. We are as near as we can be to some change in the way women’s pensions are administered. Do we really want to wait another four years before anyone will listen?

How to find out who your candidates are:

The websites of the main political parties will list details of their candidates:

Conservatives; Labour; Liberal Democrats

Give your local council a ring to find out the addresses to write to, if not listed above, and details of candidates in other parties.

Sample letter:

Dear

I/we support the SWAPP [Support Women Against Pensions Poverty] campaign and call upon this Government and future Governments, to address the many anomalies within the pensions system for women.

These anomalies deny thousands of women their right to a decent State Pension.

In this the 21st century, in one of the worlds riches countries only one in four women receive a full State Pension.

!/we feel this is a disgraceful situation and call for changes in the next Parliament.

Before I/we cast our vote I/we would like to know how your party intends to address the crisis in women’s pensions.

Yours Faithfully