E-petition at last!

[mew]

Number 10 Downing St. have finally made it possible to sign petitions online.
But you can also start petitions too. Loads of people have started petitions however already and it looks like theres a lot of duplication going on, so here are the ones I reckon you'll want to sign.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lightbulbs/ about putting tax on old style bulbs

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/trident/ about preventing trident being replaced

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Solar-houses/ about forcing new builds to include solar panels and/ or turbines

Theres also a petition to repeal the hunting act 2004. and it is so far the most popular which makes me sick. so ive asked to start a petition about ignoring the request for repeal. If it gets agreed I'll post the link here.

Get signing!

[Stonehead]

Interesting. It says you have to be a "British citizen" to sign one of the petitions, thereby ruling out all of us who are Commonwealth citizens and "British residents" with the right to vote.

I wonder if it's a mistake (knowing this government, quite possible) or a deliberate move to start narrowing the electoral franchise (again, quite possible).

[Shirley]

It's probably a mistake Stoney but good point.

I'm not comfortable with it. See this petition here http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/petitions

[Stonehead]

It's probably a mistake Stoney but good point.

I'm not comfortable with it. See this petition here http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/petitions

Yes, E-petitions should be run by an independent body with parliamentary oversight - not by the government of the day.

As for the British citizen thing, I have contacted them but without reply.

[mew]

Come on people give it a break, im sure they will get back to you re the british citizen thing but I started a peitition as mentioned and they haven't got back to me yet.

I'm pretty sure everything that is petitioned goes against what a current government is doing otherwise what would be the point in petitioning, so why would it be a problem who runs it as long as its looked after by an independent body such as mysociety.org

E-petition is away of getting your opinions tested in public, so just use it and stop slagging the system off please. You can't tell me that if you use it you won't be listened to, the hunting repeal has been mentioned on the bbc this morning because of it popularity!

[Stonehead]

Come on people give it a break, im sure they will get back to you re the british citizen thing but I started a peitition as mentioned and they haven't got back to me yet.

I'm pretty sure everything that is petitioned goes against what a current government is doing otherwise what would be the point in petitioning, so why would it be a problem who runs it as long as its looked after by an independent body such as mysociety.org

E-petition is away of getting your opinions tested in public, so just use it and stop slagging the system off please. You can't tell me that if you use it you won't be listened to, the hunting repeal has been mentioned on the bbc this morning because of it popularity!

Slagging it off? No - just raising a couple of concerns. It would be wrong to exclude a sizeable proportion of the electorate who have the right to vote, and it would be better IMO if it was independent of the government of the day.

Even better, it could actually have real power and be loosely modelled on the Swiss system. If you can muster enough people on your petition - say, for arguments sake, 0.01% of the UK population - then it would have to be put to a referendum, if it passed with a two-thirds majority then it would be binding on the government.

So please don't confuse constructive criticism with "slagging off".

[mew]

I appreciate what your saying but the aim of e-petition is the same whether or not it is run by number 10 or someone else. At least if its part of them they might just listen a little more. Im hopeful that government pundents are looking at e-petition as a way of seeing what the electorate whats them to do and get in there before the media or lobby groups do. It just seems to me that everytime anyone makes a suggestion of how to contribute theres always someone who comes and makes "constructive criticism" and Im sure thats all it is but some people take that to mean that something is not worth doing or just not trust worthy and I think thats a shame.

I know of no other way of telling the UK government what I want other than speaking to my MP who might agree but will usually not and so it goes no further or signing a petition but they only work when theres enough interest.

Well the hunting fraternity have found there way of publicising what they want via e-petition and im concerned that if we don't stop criticising it they will continue to do so and the real causes which matter to us all on this site will be left with a few hundred votes and nothing done.

My apologies if this seems a bit of a rant but I just want people to use e-petition. If the hunting lot get their case brought back into the public arena with it then why shouldn't we bring into the media what we want.

[Stonehead]

It just seems to me that everytime anyone makes a suggestion of how to contribute theres always someone who comes and makes "constructive criticism" and Im sure thats all it is but some people take that to mean that something is not worth doing or just not trust worthy and I think thats a shame.

So we should just say "ooh lovely" whenever something new comes along and ignore any potential problems, flaws or weaknesses?

It's much better to say how it could be improved. That also shows actual engagement with the idea, proposal or concept being put forward. Simply accepting something doesn't mean you've actually engaged with it or thought it through.

This is vastly different to rejecting everything that comes along or being negative just for the sake of it .

As for the issue of trust, well, I have rather a lot of experience of people, of politics and of people in politics. Some are decent, well-meaning people but many will use any means at their disposal to push their particular agendas. It would be rather interesting to know exactly who the people are behind the petitions and what their agendas are.

That's not to say that I reject the idea of e-petitions - and I didn't bring it up in the first place as it's not a criticism of the idea anyway. It's just that I know that like anything else, it can cut at least two ways.

[mew]

I appreciate everything you are saying but IMO with things like this you can either encourage people to sign it and maybe enough do and we get somewhere or we can talk about it, debate and not sign it and nothing happens except we've really debated the concept.

It seems we are going in the same direction but walking different paths!

[Stonehead]

As for the British citizen thing, I have contacted them but without reply.

I've just had a reply from one of the mysociety.org team...

"Yes indeed, just a drafting error. Now fixed, thanks for getting in touch."

So it is worth pointing out flaws, as they can then be fixed.

[Shirley]

Glad you got an answer Stoney!

Mew - I wasn't slagging the idea off either. If I was anti petition sites I wouldn't have even looked at the site. I do just think it would be better if it were run by someone other than the Government.

Will this continue once TB and his mob are voted out of number 10?

[Enrique]

Forcing new builds to have solar power would be great. It would also be great if all of these new city centre flats included rooftop allotments instead of concrete terraces which no one uses... im speaking from experience.