You may remember Stephen’s recent exhortation that we embrace (and preferably sign) a new petition to reform the English and Welsh libel laws, which allow the very rich to bully and intimidate the not-so-very-rich into writing only nice things. As someone who’s been threatened with legal action on more than one occasion (once by a litigious vampire-hunter – but that’s a story I’m not going to get my teeth into here), I take a personal interest in such things and immediately signed the online document.

As part of the process, you can optionally mail off a letter to your MP (assuming you live in the UK). I decided to do so, not really expecting anything to come from it. After all, it took no more effort than ticking a box and entering minimal contact details.

Lo and behold, just four days later I received a response from my elected representative (and twice Oscar winner) Glenda Jackson MP.

I was pleased to discover that Glenda (if I may call her that) backs the campaign. She even enclosed a cutting from the New Statesman quoting a supportive Secretary for Justice (Jack Straw).

I was both surprised and heartened to get such a positive and efficient response. While the communication was no doubt put together by an assistant, the letter was personally signed. By GLENDA JACKSON MP! OMG!

So if you want to receive a letter from an Academy Award winning actor, all you have to do is head over to the Libel Reform website and fill in a few boxes. Oh, and live in Hampstead and Highgate.

Here’s a transcript of the letter.

Dear Mr Brown

Thank you for writing to me making the case for reform of the UK’s libel laws, as part of the campaign organised by PEN, Index on Censorship and Sense About Science.

I have been contacted on this issue by a large number of constituents who share your concerns, and am pleased to inform you I have already signed EDM 423. I have also raised the points you made with the Secretary for Justice, Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, and will contact you again once I have received a response.

In the meantime, I thought you might be interested to read an extract from an interview with Jack Straw, published earlier this month in the New Statesman. I hope you will find this encouraging, as it seems there is the political will, and concrete proposals, to fundamentally change defamation law in the UK.

Yours sincerely

Glenda Jackson MP