As I mentioned yesterday, I am making increased use of AI. One of my reasons for doing so is to increase the usefulness of the material produced on this blog.
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the ChatGPT prompts that I have created is designed to turn material in a blog post published here into a tailored letter to an MP asking that they consider the subject of the post in question.
As an exercise, I have now done this using the transcript of this morning's post on personal debt.
This is the ChatGPT prompt that I wrote for this purpose:
My name is [Insert].
My email address is [Insert]. I am happy to correspond electronically.
My address is [Insert in full, including postcode].
Please identify my MP based on my above-noted address, making sure you are identifying the MP elected in July 2024 or since then if a by-election has been held.
I want you to write a letter to my MP.
The letter should raise my concerns about the issues raised in this blog post [Insert blog post url].
The text of the blog post in question is [Copy the post to here].
I would like you to:
- Include a title in the letter based on the primary issue addressed in this post.
- Summarise the concerns raised in the blog post using number paragraphs. If you wish to highlight the subject of each paragraph using bold text in its first sentence, please feel free to do so.
- You do not need to reference the source material, but can if you want to do so.
- Summarise the issues arising from the concerns, again using numbered paragraphs, and again using bold text in the first sentence of each paragraph to highlight what that issue arising is, if you think it appropriate.
- Ask the MP to take action. Please feel free to generate possibilities within the range of those normally open to an MP, but you might wish to mention:
- Raising the issue with a minister
- Asking a question in the House
- Tabling an Early Day Motion
- Supporting a Commons committee investigating the issue
- Raising the matter with an All Party Parliamentary Group
- Ask the MP to provide feedback on actions taken and responses received.
The tone of the letter should be polite. And confident but should make it clear that a response is expected, as is action.
Please include my MP's full address. Add today's date to the letter. Put the title after the salutation. Put my name and address in the opening paragraph as MPs need to know that information.
Thank you for your assistance.
You could use this as easily as I can.
As you will note, it requires the person using the prompt to insert four things:
- Their name
- Their address, because without it an MP will not reply.
- The URL of the blog posting question
- The text of the blog (because I find this improves accuracy)
Using this prompt, and just inserting my name and postcode, ChatGPT generated this letter to my local MP:
To:
Charlotte Cane MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Date: 20 June 2025
Dear Ms Cane,
The Real UK Debt Crisis is in Our Households, Not the Treasury
I am writing as your constituent. My name is Richard Murphy, and I live at ........
I am contacting you to express my deep concern about the growing crisis of personal debt in the UK, and to ask for your support in taking action on this issue in Parliament.
Contrary to much of the current political narrative, the UK does not face a crisis in government borrowing. Instead, we face a far more pressing and damaging crisis in household debt — one that is harming millions and threatening both social and economic stability.
Summary of Concerns
Household debt is becoming unmanageable. Despite falling base rates, credit card and personal borrowing costs are now exceeding 30% annually, creating unsustainable financial pressure on many households.
Debt is being used to survive, not to consume. Increasingly, people are turning to credit to pay for basic essentials like food, energy, rent and transport — not luxuries.
Real incomes have stagnated for over a decade. Since 2008, many working people have seen their wages fall in real terms, while those on pensions or benefits are also worse off.
The cost of living has soared. Inflation in essential goods has hit low-income households particularly hard, worsening inequality and financial strain.
The safety net has been shredded. Universal Credit is plagued by sanctions and delays, housing benefit is inadequate, and the minimum wage still falls short of meeting basic needs in many areas.
Debt is replacing public support. In the absence of sufficient wages or social security, debt has become a structural part of household survival — a sign of policy failure.
There are wide social consequences. This crisis is fuelling mental health problems, relationship breakdowns, child poverty, and long-term economic costs through lost productivity and increased public service demands.
The government has alternatives — but refuses to act. It could improve wages, benefits, housing and public services, but instead continues to cut and constrain, claiming “fiscal responsibility” while transferring debt onto the most vulnerable.
Issues Arising
Policy focus is dangerously misplaced. Political debate remains fixated on public borrowing rather than the real damage being done by unserviceable household debt.
False analogies mislead the public. Equating household budgets with government budgets is not only economically incorrect — it justifies harmful policies.
Austerity is a political choice, not a necessity. Shifting the burden of debt from the state to households is not responsible; it is regressive and harmful.
We need a new economic narrative. The UK faces a poverty crisis, not a public debt crisis. It faces a crisis in low pay, unaffordable housing, and social insecurity — and these are what now drive the debt explosion.
Request for Action
I therefore respectfully ask you to consider the following:
Raise this issue directly with the relevant Treasury or DWP ministers.
Submit a question in the House addressing the scale and cost of personal debt and the income insecurity behind it.
Table an Early Day Motion to open parliamentary discussion and gauge wider support.
Support a Select Committee inquiry into household debt, credit regulation, and the adequacy of the welfare state.
Engage with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty to ensure this issue is prioritised.
Request for Feedback
As your constituent, I would be grateful for a reply confirming what steps you are able to take and any responses you receive from ministers or others. I believe this is one of the most urgent economic and moral challenges we face, and I hope you will agree it requires serious political attention.
Thank you for your time and your public service.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Murphy
There are three things to note.
Firstly, I think that this is entirely usable, although I would need to check that the APPG referred to really exists, and I have not done so as yet.
Secondly, the prompt will never produce identical letters. That is one of its great strengths. It means that you can use this knowing that no one else will have written exactly the same letter.
Third, this is a pretty good summary of the arguments.
My suggestion is that you do not copy and paste this letter and send it to your MP, but that you do instead use the ChatGPT prompt to create your own. Of course, you could use it on any material you like.
My request is that you let me know whether you think that this is useful or not. I have added some questions below, because some people are reluctant to comment here. But, if you do have comments on the usefulness of this, please do note them, and suggestions as to how we might make these readily available would also be appreciated. Would it, for example, be useful to have a page of ChatGPT prompts that could be easily accessed for use?
Is it useful for me to produce ChatGPT prompts to share like this?
- Yes (60%, 99 Votes)
- I do not use ChatGPT (25%, 41 Votes)
- I will never use ChatGPT (12%, 20 Votes)
- No (2%, 4 Votes)
Total Voters: 164
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You already know my views about the misuse of AI, but this seems to be a particularly egregious use case. Firstly, there are already sites that help to create messages to MPs, using nothing more complicated than a database of constituency postcodes and the corresponding MP contact details. Secondly, how do you think such AI generated content is going to be received? If it becomes commonplace, I suggest it will result in MPs taking less and less notice of the deluge of correspondence they will receive.
I think there are far better uses for AI technology.
Noted Kim
But I completely diaagree with you.
Since when was assisting effective communication on campaign issues a waste of time?
And how can you confuse finding your MP with assiting with writing a letter. They are poles apart.
I am totally baffled by your comments.
Kim’s second point really struck a chord with me. In my work, I deal with a lot of dispute resolution and written email correspondence, so the role of AI is becoming increasingly relevant.
Not long ago, I was discussing a piece of correspondence with a senior colleague — it was part of the final stages of a genuine but ultimately hopeless case. The email we received had clearly been written by ChatGPT. My colleague reacted with almost scorn at the use of AI, and I was taken aback by both his response and the sympathetic nods it got from others.
I remember thinking, “So what if they used AI?” If it helps someone structure thoughts that might otherwise be a bit jumbled (like mine often are!), and it results in something clear and readable, isn’t that a good thing?
But Kim’s point made me reflect — perhaps that reaction from my colleague isn’t unusual. Maybe there really is a stigma developing around AI-generated communication in some professional settings, even when it’s being used responsibly to improve clarity and coherence. (rewritten for clarity by ChatGPT :-))
Did you know that letter was written by AI?
Of course there are materials obviously written by AI all around us. But if that letter is not obviously written by AI – and I dount that is obvious, what does it matter?
And remember – I would always encourage people to check and edit whatever is produced. Add in a typo or two, I suggest 🙂
Perhaps I have missed the point, but finding MP contact details seemed to be the only part of the process which improved on one where you post the draft text of the letter, rather than the AI prompt to produce that letter.
If readers of the blog are going to copy/paste, why not copy the output instead of the far more expensive ChatGPT prompt?
You really miss the point Kim
The point is that the prompt can be used by anyone on any blog post
Is that not obvious?
I confess that my general aversion to AI led me to ignore the important point that this can be used in a more general way than I imagined. For that I apologise. But I do wonder whether using ChatGPT ends up as less effort than writing a letter in the ‘old-fashioned’ way, of the form…
“Richard Murphy’s blog at [URL] makes the following important point… [insert key issue]. I hope you agree that something must be done.”
In my experience, one-paragraph, one-issue emails are the best way to get a sensible response from anyone, not just from MPs.
Maybe, maybe not. There are many routes to success!
Thanks, Richard — I’ve used the tool you recommended and fingers crossed for a decent response.
My MP is Sarah Owen, and in the past her office has been pretty responsive when I’ve written in (I previously raised concerns about disaster planning and possible shortages linked to global supply chain issues). The reply was a bit mixed — it felt like the person answering didn’t quite grasp the heart of the question — but they did seem to make a genuine effort to respond properly. Even the Conservative minister they contacted replied, though they ended up answering a slightly different question! Still, I appreciated the engagement.
I’ll report back when I get a response. Chat GPT used the phrase “Policy dissonance” which I liked, descibing it as: Pressuring government balance sheets while pushing debt onto households is morally and economically misguided
Let us know.
I worked in MPs ‘offices (of several different political parties & Independents). From experience I would say an MP’s staff receiving such a letter would be pleased because it both makes it clear what the issue being raised is; and includes some actions expected of the MP. I would always advocate you ask the MP to bring the letter/email to the personal attention of the relevant minister, with a note from the MP, because if an MP communicates with a minister, it always gets priority in the minister’s i-box.
Thanks
I used the template with Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and it produced a similar but quite different response to yours on Chat GPT. I adjusted the response to reflect my writing style and am really happy with output.
For example,
2. A false economic analogy is being used to justify inaction.
The comparison between a government’s budget and a household’s budget is fundamentally flawed. Unlike a household, the government can create money to invest in the economy. Pretending they are the same is not just poor economics; it provides a justification for policies that result in cruelty to the most vulnerable. It is households, not the government, that have “maxed-out credit cards”.
My MP is Andrew Cooper and I will report back on his response.
Thanks.
Good to know it worked.
To save everyone’s time and effort, I asked ChatGPT to draft a response to your letter. Here it is:
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
[Date]
Dear Mr Murphy,
Thank you very much for your recent letter expressing your concerns about levels of personal debt in the United Kingdom. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views on this important matter.
I understand that rising household debt and the cost of living are significant issues for many people across the country, and I share your concern about the challenges faced by individuals and families in these difficult times. It is essential that we continue to ensure that appropriate support is available for those who need it most.
Please be assured that I take these matters seriously. I have noted your suggestions and will consider them carefully. I regularly raise a range of issues with ministers and colleagues, and I will continue to monitor developments in this area closely. I am also aware that the Government is keeping its policies under review and has introduced various measures to support households, particularly those on lower incomes.
While I cannot commit to taking any specific parliamentary action at this time, I will certainly bear your letter in mind in future discussions. I have forwarded your concerns to the relevant ministerial department for their consideration, and I will let you know if I receive a substantive reply.
Once again, thank you for writing to me. I value the contributions of constituents like yourself in informing my work as your Member of Parliament.
Yours sincerely,
[MP Name]
Member of Parliament for [Constituency]
I’ve written to my MP and explained what you are up to and included the draft of the reply, so she can save time if she gets such a letter and get on with something more important.
I won’t be sending the letters
You really have wasted your time.
That sounds just like the responses I get all the time from my MP, Luke Akehurst.
I will continue to annoy him, though. What else should I do with my time?
This is what I use theyworkforyou.com, part of My Society.
You can write using writetothem.com
You can follow your MPs votes, as well as any other you want to follow, like Prem Sikka in the lords, or Lord Beamish, who would have been my MP if he hadn’t stood down to make way for Luke Akehurst.
If you use writetothem.com you will get an acknowledgement that it has been received, which is useful.
You could send the generated text that way, of course.
I really cannot understand why Tracy Davies, if that is indeed their name, bothered to make a contribution in these comments at all.
It might be a useful theoretical exercise to game play via AI what kind of answer you could get, to tweet your original draft to avoid being fobbed off. But to use it to points score to dismiss what is an attempt by Richard to creatively enhance the democratic accountability process for our respective seems small minded and frankly churlish.
Tracy would be better off reading a good novel or taking a pleasantb walk in the sunshine than cluttering up this comments section with such a contribution!
Agreed
I am sure ‘Tracy’ has nothing better to do than get angry with the world.
‘Tracy’ does touch on one interesting point though. Whether or not we use AI to generate letters to MPs, increasingly we will see MPs using AI to respond to them. I wonder at what point our elected representatives will take themselves out of the loop completely. 😛
MPs staff already write the responses
But they do note the issues raised – and that influences all those MPs I know
So, mailing them is worthwhile
People need to be careful, and not include any personal details on chats used with Artificial Intelligence. The platforms are not guaranteed to keep this information private, so your private information could find its way into someone else’s chat.
So I recommend that instead of using [your name], that you use “myname”, which you then edit in the draft that you download (using search and replace)
I admit I think that makes little sense. People’s names and addresses are all over the internet. This will not change that. Filling out almost any web form achieves that outcome.
You could add in the link to search for your MP by postcode :
https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
Why? The AI does it.
Thank you very much, Richard! 🙂 I may well spend some time this evening (though it’ll probably take me all night!) trying to write to my MP about my worry over benefits cuts and PIP cuts. Did you know that the government are also thinking of means testing PIP?
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/ministers-are-secretly-considering-means-testing-pip-dwp-admits-despite-pledge-in-green-paper/
I’ve written to my MP before, as has my husband, and we’ve always had a reply.
If anyone else here is thinking of writing about these things to their MP, or on behalf of somebody they support, here are a couple of resources I’ve found very useful.
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/universal-credit-and-personal-independence-payment-bill-updates
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-uc-changes
Benefits and Work are really great – I used a lot of their advice when I last had to get PIP renewed. The DWP PIP assessor actually lied about what I said (her excuse was “It was a typo”!), and what I could do in her assessment (long story!). I lost my Motability car, and after the usual piffle of trying to get DWP to alter my PIP rates back, it took 2 years to get to Tribunal. Which I won! Yipee!
Good luck
Yes, definitely useful, although I would be inclined to use the prompts against DeepSeek or Dia, (which I believe references Perplexity and is very thorough on source citation) as I am a little sceptical of ChatGPT, most particularly because of its reported looseness on AI safety controls [Control AI and others] and it’s hallucinatory frequency.
Noted
Unfortunately my MP is, I believe , the only MP not to have an email address for his constituents, one Julian Lewis, Tory MP for New Forest East. I have tackled him with this but he states he hasn’t found his constituents need an email address to contact him. Needless to say, this is sadly a very safe Tory seat …..
,
Weird….