[bell-cot]

In theory.

Could you tell us about the historical effectiveness of such open letters to UK politicians, from tiny numbers of technical experts, on issues politically similar to this?

Assume that we've heard of Performative Activism.

[AndrewKemendo]

While not the UK you might have heard of this letter from a tiny number of technical experts on a politically sensitive technical topic:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%E2%80%93Szilard_let...

[bell-cot]

Yes.

Context: The President it was addressed to had been working to prepare for war against Germany for most of a year. Einstein's "famous, politically ~neutral super-genius" reputation was far loftier than that of any signatory to this Open Letter. And it warned the U.S. President about a super-powerful type of bomb which Germany might develop (and use against the U.S.A.) during a period when both bomber and bombing technologies were obviously advancing very rapidly.

If a "smartest in the world" mathematician wrote the current U.S. President, to warn that the crypto algorithms currently used by the U.S. for uber-secret stuff might quite possibly be fully broken by China in the next few years - then I suspect that the current U.S. President might be fairly willing to take action. That is not the scenario around this Open Letter.

[AndrewKemendo]

Totally concur - the point I was making that you revealed well is “The author is all that matters”

This actually happens all the time between experts and legislators, they just call it lobbying and it unfortunately lacks the “neutrality” that should be assumed, corrupting the whole thing in the process.

[bell-cot]

Um..."The author is all that matters" was not my point. Nor is it my belief. It is, at most, one link in a chain.