My MP doesn't want to know.

I practice what I preach, so when I asked people here to look on the Invest in ME website and write to their MP, I did just that and wrote to Angela Browning MP, member for Tiverton and Honiton.

After the first reply enclosing a less than helpful letter from a Minister at the Dept of Health I wrote again, pointing out that I had received no answers to my questions and asking Mrs Browning in any case if she would sign the Early Day Motion 260 which says:

That this House:

notes that 2005 is the 50th anniversary of the first description in medical literature of the illness myalgic encephalopathy (ME);

is concerned by the subsequent lack of scientific research into the illness during that time, which has been a cause of distress to the quarter million ME sufferers in the UK;

reminds the Government of the study, ME: Cost to the Nation, that put the annual economic cost of ME at £3.5 billion;

is dismayed to learn that one of the few contemporary scientific studies into the causes of this illness, carried out at Glasgow University, is under threat from lack of funds;

and calls on the Government to provide the necessary funds to secure and promote this and other studies into the cause and treatment of M.E.

Her reply astounded me:

"You may care to know that I do not sign EDMs because, despite the name "motion", they are rarely debated on the Floor of the House. More importantly Ministers are not even required to give a response. I therefore write to Ministers when constituents contact me about EDMs, so that the Minister is aware of the views being expressed and is required to give a reply."

Or in this case a non-reply. As a friend who is concerned with ME wrote to me:

The whole response seems to wreak of apathy - and still you didn't get a response to your earlier questions. Another person who cannot see, and isn't interested in the havoc this illness is causing.