Red letter day

I was surprised to come home from a couple of days away to see a UKIP envelope on the doormat with a red letter inside it.  My initial thought was "bugger, who have I upset now?"

It wasn't a summons to a disciplinary committee though, it was a second membership renewal reminder from UKIP.

I don't pay by Direct Debit and I'm terribly disorganised so I tend to read letters and forget to do anything about them.  It's good in a way though because I like to see what letters we're sending out to members who are late renewing to see how much effort is being made to keep them!

Setting aside the fact that people with poor eyesight will find it difficult to read black text on dark red paper (and a sizeable proportion of our members are elderly and probably have failing eyesight) surely a red letter for a reminder is sending out the wrong message?  Our supporters and voters are in no way obliged to give us money but the red letter implies an overdue bill and some people might misinterpret it as a demand for money rather than a request with the associated distress.

To make sure I wasn't making a mountain out of a molehill I checked with the wife and she agreed!