What would be the appropriate salutation?

[Harlesden]

I am hoping someone can help me with this. I need to write to a Member of Parliament who happens to bear the title Right Honourable. Of course this is normally abbreviated to Rt. Hon. but what is the appropriate salutation to use in a letter?

 

[martinsh]

"Oi, Pigface"

 

[Tomonthetrain]

"Oi, Pigface"

That's the usual salutation I get At work.

 

[flymo]

I think a simple Dear Sir or Dear Madam as appropriate would be sufficient to start the letter with the full title on the envelope i.e. The Rt. Hon [name here] MP.

That is what I did years ago when I wrote to one, can't remember who now though but I got a reply.

 

[Pumbaa]

Flymo's method is perfectly acceptable. My notes to my local MPs tend to be on first name terms, but that's only because I am on first name terms with them.

 

[Schnellzug]

"My dear fellow".

 

[Oracle]

The Right Honourable Fred Bloggs, MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr Bloggs,

As you can see I am a constituent of yours.....

OR

Although I do not live in your Constituency, and I know that ettiquette nornally prevents you from corresponding with another Member's constituent, I felt that I must write to you about....I am sending a copy of this letter to my MP, Mrs Wilhemina Stickers, out of courtesy.

And then

Yours sincerely

[SIGNATURE]

HARRY ARLESDEN

c.c. Mrs Wilhemina Sticker, MP.

I have been involved in the dim and distant past in politics...as you can see!

 

[Schnellzug]

I emailed the HoC one time, just out of curiousity about why some were Right Honourable and some were less so. (I was studying Politics, so I had some sort of excuse.) I got a quite polite reply, not from an MP but from some functionary in Customer Services, I suppose. Apparently it's something to do with the Privy Council, or something.

 

[Oracle]

Privy Councilors, Marquesses and others have 'Right Honourable' prefixing their names...including Appellate Judges (Court of Appeal) as they are members of the PC. High Court Judges and others are 'The Honourable'. Some long-standing MPs are awarded by Knighthoods...Knights Bachelor. Or Damehoods of course!

 

[Harlesden]

Thank you Oracle.
Actually writing to Iain Duncan Smith as he is the Minister responsible for the department I'm having problems with

 

[martinsh]

Privy Councilors, Marquesses and others have 'Right Honourable' prefixing their names...including Appellate Judges (Court of Appeal) as they are members of the PC. High Court Judges and others are 'The Honourable'. Some long-standing MPs are awarded by Knighthoods...Knights Bachelor. Or Damehoods of course!

And the rest of them are real people ! (like my friend "Timbo")

 

[WestCoast]

Just another random tip for formal letters/emails that people always seem to ask me. Always remember that two snakes in a bag fight.

It's never Dear Sir/Madam and Yours Sincerely - it becomes Yours Faithfully.

 

[ainsworth74]

Just another random tip for formal letters/emails that people always seem to ask me. Always remember that two snakes in a bag fight.

It's never Dear Sir/Madam and Yours Sincerely - it becomes Yours Faithfully.

I always remember it by thinking "faithfully formal". So if I'm writing a formal letter I remember that it needs to be signed off faithfully as that is the formal way of doing so. One of the few really useful things my GCSE English teacher taught me.

 

[Oswyntail]

Thank you Oracle.
Actually writing to Iain Duncan Smith as he is the Minister responsible for the department I'm having problems with

Write to your MP, and ask them to take it up with the Minister. A Minister does not have to respond to the general public, but does have to respond to an MP. If you go direct to IDS, you may well just get fobbed off with a universal letter from a junior civil servant.
On the Faithfully / Sincerely bit, I was taught it depends on whether you have named the addressee. Dear Sir ends Faithfully, Dear Mr Harlesden ends Sincerely

 

[Bungle73]

I was taught it depends on whether you have named the addressee. Dear Sir ends Faithfully, Dear Mr Harlesden ends Sincerely

This is correct.

 

[WestCoast]

On the Faithfully / Sincerely bit, I was taught it depends on whether you have named the addressee. Dear Sir ends Faithfully, Dear Mr Harlesden ends Sincerely

It is indeed and that's why the snakes (sir and sincerely) fight!

 

[Oracle]

Or you can have Yours truly if you know them.

As regards writing to IDS, write to your MP and ask them to forward it. The Civil Servants may then make sure that it gets passed on. You are writing to the Minister as mininister and not as an MP, so you should address it to the Department but as I have said, it may be answered by a junior.

 

[Bungle73]

Or you can have Yours truly if you know them.

Yours truly is the American equivalent of yours faithfully. This isn't America.