Parliamentary Ombudsman then. Out of interest, which MP is it?

Did you receive any kind of reply? At least an acknowledgement to say they've received your letter. If not, then he's supposed to - I believe MPs are given a very short time limit to respond to initial letters (four days, is it?).

I'm thinking a deluge of emails should be sent - it might get the message across. They can't feign ignorance then, can they?

Nice to see MacKenzie Hall are still using fictional staff names. Must be a law against that...

No, they employ more than 12 (unless they've downsized). I would say around 30 or 40. I've seen the inside of their building and overheard at least two operators using inappropriate language (re. swearing) to callers.

Another email to my MP. Just checking up and seeing if there've been any developments on his looking into my I.J. complaint. He does seem passionate about this issue, and dare I say it, even surprised.

Like just about everybody else, I'm quite sick of the outright lies, the dishonesty, but above all, the 'we're taking more off you and giving you less back, but it's for your own good' ethos that seems almost like a tag-line for the cabinet today. I despised the Tories, but you have to wonder if they'd have f***ed the country up quite as quickly as what Blair and Brown have. Is it just me, or is London's philosophy of costing stupid amounts of money just to live there seems to be slowly sweeping across the country? We all need to move!

Letter arrived from my MP (a Labour one, too). Seems he has no knowledge of the government's proposals and is quite interested in looking further into this. Seems true - the government often doesn't tell its MPs what it's doing and the backbenchers often don't find out until after the fact.

Some more tricks could probably have been added to that. For instances, how DCAs use credit reference agency database software to check if someone they're looking for has taken out credit at an alternative address. Experian does 'lease out' its huge database to DCAs, so I'd safely assume that Equifax and Callcredit do too. This is not to mention a DCA's standard checks of electoral rolls or land registry records if they want to track a person down. I'm not trying to encourage people to run away from debts they know that they do owe. But - the more one knows about how DCAs work, the less surprises they have and in turn, the less fright/pressure they can put on people. If more people did know how they worked, it's much more likely that the more crooked DCAs (would that be all of them?) will go out of business. That's the way I'd look at it anyway.

YouTube - You STILL sure this government isn't selling you? - Pt1 YouTube - You STILL sure this government isn't selling you? Pt2

It seems that my resolve to leave this stupid cesspool of a country has just been re-inforced - if that were possible. The fact that 10 Downing Street should reject the petition perfectly encapsulates what route the country's going to be taking, and it's downhill all the way. Still, I wasn't hopeful that they'd listen anyway so I can't say I'm surprised.

Hi everyone I've just listened to 15 mins of utter drivel! Yes, the speaker has a point about DCAs but if you start a petition or other campaign based on this, you will only bring ridicule on anyone trying to bring these DCAs into line. DCAs are bad news but tougher regulations are due to take hold next month. There will be a period of new regulations and a 'honeymoon' period from the OFT to get DCAs to change. After that the OFT will need real evidence to nail these firms with questionable parentage. Instead of organising petitions etc, we should start to notify the OFT of every breach of OFT guidlines NOW, so that there is a body of usable evidence. Well, in defence of the speaker, I think that the OFT have been long aware of what DCAs have been up to, and I don't think a great many people who post on this forum in particular have much faith in the OFT at all. I can't believe that this might be the first time anybody's made a verbal announcement on Youtube about this. Remember that the OFT and the FOS have still allowed banks to continue with issuing customers with overdraft charges while the court case still goes on. So, I don't think that 'tougher regulations' are going to have much impact on these companies - if at all. The OFT have basically been all but ignored by these firms so far. I myself have made the OFT aware of various breaches (about 30 or 40 in all) that DCAs/agencies have made in relation to me, and I daresay that as many, if not more, has been done to other people besides me. The point the speaker is trying to get across is how corrupt these firms are yes, but also the fact that the government is trying to give these disreputable firms state details by the backdoor. How much more hypocritical can you get - slate these firms for driving someone to suicide, and then employ them using taxpayers money once the fuss has died down. But, the really worrying thing is that these companies will have access to government details. Something does have to be done to stop this, and I for one can't rely on the OFT to do this. It IS high time that somebody spoke up about it. I'd also be interested to know if any DCA firms have made any party donations. I notice that this is something the speaker hasn't covered.

What's guessing that the ones who are most passionate about bringing ID cards in turn out to have posts with such companies? Anybody else feel just a little bit betrayed about all this? Well, doesn't look like we've even begun to see the worst of it yet.

Milburn is, eh? One of Blair's top-allies - why am I not surprised? What's he on the board of then?

Might be worth posting a list of who owns what companies, and which MPs are on the boards/books. I don't know of any that are, but it wouldn't surprise me if more than half of them were.

No, the government probably won't listen, but at least there are people who can see how evil what they plan to do actually is. Selling the privacy of every UK citizen to conmen, just because the CSA system's in a shambles. But then, that's typical of this government - there's a problem, or if there's a small minority that causes trouble, then lets kick in the teeth of society as a whole. I can't believe that people aren't screaming blue murder over this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2dzgu3f7Zk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7orvLuSxmqw