Left-wing lobby group, 38 Degrees, has been accused of deliberately wasting MPs time ahead of today’s vote on NHS reforms. The group, which is opposed to the Care Bill, has asked it members to send tens of thousands of identical emails to MPs along with Twitter messages, and phone calls.
In their latest message to supporters they say they have sent 80,000 emails to parliamentarians over the last few weeks, forcing MPs – who often do not have the capacity to deal with bulk emails properly – to copy and paste thousands of replies.
Today, they are mounting a campaign to deluge MPs with twitter messages and phone calls. The calls themselves clog up lines, preventing constituents in genuine hardship from contacting their MP.
38 Degrees is trying to stop Amendment 119 of the Bill, which would enable administrators to close failing services at hospitals. The move is expected to ensure that problems, such as those at Mid Staffs NHS Trust, are not repeated. The amendment is being opposed by a collection of left-wing groups including the Trade Unions.
One Conservative MP, who has been on the receiving end of the emails, tweets and calls, told Breitbart London: “38 Degrees never inform MPs of anything, they just believe that wasting our time will grind us into submission. They are parasites on the parliamentary system, and do what they do for vanity not the public good.”
38 Degrees has previously been in trouble for sending 250,000 emails to Parliament about the BSkyB merger with News International. Leading to a number of MPs to refuse to reply to them anymore.