Lobbyists Overcome by Lassitude,
I was not aware that "the government" (they're not in control) ran an official online petitioning service, this was obviously in the news recently with respect to the potential new road tax policy.
Petitions are rubbish and the only decent thing about the online service is that it it saves the wastage of paper. People who are unhappy organise petitions but nobody ever starts a petition to say that everything is okay, or to agree with a good idea.
In any case, petitions are lazy. Complaints should arrive through the post, a person who feels passionate about a cause will go to the length of writing a letter. A letter carries more weight than a reactionary and ill-considered email and infinitely more weight than an effortless signature by pen or keyboard.
It's still quite interesting to see what the public are complaining about but I'd have to say they're a bit misguided. A petition about retaining funding for the Red Arrows has received a lot of support. I love military aircraft as much as the next person and RAF Leuchars Air Show can be a good day out but this kind of thing causes too much noise, traffic and the needless combustion of hydrocarbons by cars and aircraft. The government are supposed to reply to petitions that receive over 100 signatures, this means that they will have to process the petition that urges Tony Blair to stand on his head and juggle ice cream - they'll say that's democracy in action.
Petitions are rubbish and the only decent thing about the online service is that it it saves the wastage of paper. People who are unhappy organise petitions but nobody ever starts a petition to say that everything is okay, or to agree with a good idea.
In any case, petitions are lazy. Complaints should arrive through the post, a person who feels passionate about a cause will go to the length of writing a letter. A letter carries more weight than a reactionary and ill-considered email and infinitely more weight than an effortless signature by pen or keyboard.
It's still quite interesting to see what the public are complaining about but I'd have to say they're a bit misguided. A petition about retaining funding for the Red Arrows has received a lot of support. I love military aircraft as much as the next person and RAF Leuchars Air Show can be a good day out but this kind of thing causes too much noise, traffic and the needless combustion of hydrocarbons by cars and aircraft. The government are supposed to reply to petitions that receive over 100 signatures, this means that they will have to process the petition that urges Tony Blair to stand on his head and juggle ice cream - they'll say that's democracy in action.
posted by Leif at 11:06 PM
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