Standard letters, no matter in what number, are likely to be regarded as just that, i.e. another member of "that" campaign doing what he has been told. No matter how badly worded, I think a personal letter, all the more noticable because it is personal and unique and individual, will, when taken in aggregate with all the other letters, do a better job of persuading the reader that that is someone who really should count for one, a whole individual, complete with his own thoughts, added to all the others. Together, the collective force of individually written letters, perhaps precisely because it is harder to put your own thoughts into words, will count for more than an avalanche of the same number of form letters, and by about the same factor as there are individuals complainants.

I don't mean to put you off. A form letter would be nice and certainly better than nothing. But I really think impact depends on individuals willing to think the thing through for themselves and apply their own pen to their own paper.

By the way, as regards the next thing to do, this reminds me of the campaign for unmetered telecommunications a few years ago. A big factor there, believe it or not, was other industry competitors unhappy with metered telecoms a la BT. These competitors included AOL and Microsoft. I kid you not. The times newspaper also got on the bandwagon. Before long, BT were succumbing to both governmental and industry pressure. It seems to me that other industry players together with grass roots consumers' protest groups can be the combination that carries the needed weight to produce change.

Just my thoughts.

LUN.