QUOTE:
“We set up a strategic communications unit alongside the press office in No 10 [Downing Street London — the office of the British Prime Minister] charged with thinking about the longer term. The unit was in charge of new media as well as correspondence. The government has a huge opportunity to communicate with the people by replying to their emails and letters; but when we arrived in No 10, most of the letters addressed to the prime minister would be shipped off to departments and never get a reply. In the first few months of office, a letter arrived addressed to Tony[Blair, British Prime minister 1997-2006] congratulating him on his election and signed “Your loving pa”. It never got to Tony but Leo, Tony’s father, received a reply addressed to “Dear Mr Loving Pa”, thanking him for his letter and saying that his views had been noted, with an illegible signature underneath.”
UNQUOTE
(From The Memoires of Anthony Powell, Chief of Staff of Tony Blair)
