The practice of ‘franking’ or sending mail at public expense should be banned. At the very most, politicians’ use of franking privileges or funds should be restricted to only covering the costs of sending or shipping (through either mail, telephone, etc.) information that has been requested by a constituent. But even these costs should, ideally, not be borne by the public. The constituent requesting the information should bear all costs associated with receiving that information. Ideally, there should be no franking privileges or funds.  If ‘franked’ mailings are sent at public expense, each mailing should state that fact somewhere on its front cover.

All elected officials should have all of their needs to communicate to their constituents or any other members of the public met by using standard, government-funded and run websites to provide whatever information may be requested.