Make A Comic For Your MP: The Comics Cultural Impact Collective Have Plans For The UK Election
by Richard Bruton
We’ve told you plenty already about the Comics Cultural Impact Collective already, now they’ve got a cunning plan for getting comics on politician’s radar this election season…
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Yep, that’s pretty much their plan!
There’s a General Election on 4 July in the United Kingdom. The CCIC have a plan as to how you can show these MPs (members of Parliament) that comics are a perfect medium in the arts and let them know just what you think. Both are vitally important, especially at a time where the arts in the UK are under attack.
All the details are in this article – do click through, read, and share. Like the CCIC say:
‘If we want our dastardly plan to have a real effect, we need as many people to get involved as possible. So tell all your comics pals, your social networks, your friendly local street cleaner, etc etc.’
This all comes about from the CCIC, who are all about increasing the visibility of the comics medium, particularly here in the the UK. They’ve already released a state of UK comics report (see here for that). And now comes this plan to get your local MP to take notice.
The basic idea goes something like this…
As for how to do it, well it can be anything you want, it doesn’t have to be a magnum opus, it might only be a quick one-pager or a zine. It needn’t be long or polished – perhaps a one-pager or a quick zine. CCIC point you to this how to make a zine out of a single sheet of A4 or A3 paper here by Read Brightly for an idea.
So, here’s a slightly cut down version of what CCIC are suggesting you do – the full version is here.
What should be in my comic?
Tell your new MP what matters to you. MPs – especially if they are brand new – want to hear from their constituents. After all, they are now representing you when they debate or vote in Parliament. One recent message from the current government is that they don’t see the value of arts and culture, or arts education. They’re cutting funding and pledging to end degrees like Comic Arts. So that might be one place to start – you’d like to see a world where arts and culture are valued and properly funded.
On a practical point: make sure you include your address; many MPs require this as proof that you live in their constituency before they’ll deal with your correspondence. If you’re sharing online, you’ll probably want to blur this part out before you upload it.
How do I send my comic to my new MP?
If you’re not sure who got in, check www.writetothem.com where you can input your postcode and it’ll tell you who your MP is. For physical comics: either send it to their local office within your constituency, or their parliamentary address. You can find your MP’s local office address on their website. Or address your letter to their name, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.
For digital comics, you can send them by email. Note that brand new MPs won’t have an email address for a few weeks while they get settled in, but when they do you’ll be able to find it here.
And here’s one of the CCIC founders, Myfanwy Tristram, showing you one that she’s already made…
And finally, they would love you to share your comics, and so would we. They’re using the hashtag #comicsforMPs. And if you send it to CCIC at helloccic@gmail.com they’ll also share it and add it to their archive for future work lobbying MPs about the power of comics.
This is one of those very simple but very effective ideas. The cynics might say that it won’t matter, that they won’t listen etc. etc. But new politicians are the best at listening to people, possibly because they haven’t settled into power yet and still actually believe that they should listen to, and act on behalf of, their constituents.
