EPetitions

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:ePetition}}{{internet}}{{UKpolitics}}
 
{{DISPLAYTITLE:ePetition}}{{internet}}{{UKpolitics}}
The '''ePetition''', otherwise known as the ([[United Kingdom|UK]]) '''Prime Minister's Petition''', is arguably the first Internet petition system to mean something: it allows concerns to be brushed off ''officially'', rather than simply ignored.
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The '''ePetition''', otherwise known as the ([[United Kingdom|UK]]) '''Prime Minister's Petition''', is arguably the first Internet petition system to mean something: it allows concerns to be brushed off ''officially'', rather than simply be ignored.
  
 
Anyone can start a petition asking that the government do something. Petitions run for a length of time and are then officially answered if they get a reasonable number of signers.
 
Anyone can start a petition asking that the government do something. Petitions run for a length of time and are then officially answered if they get a reasonable number of signers.

Revision as of 23:53, 21 November 2012

Someone is wrong on

The Internet

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A guide to

U.K. Politics

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God Save the Queen?

The ePetition, otherwise known as the (UK) Prime Minister's Petition, is arguably the first Internet petition system to mean something: it allows concerns to be brushed off officially, rather than simply be ignored.

Anyone can start a petition asking that the government do something. Petitions run for a length of time and are then officially answered if they get a reasonable number of signers.

Contents

hIstory

The site was first set up by hardworking British geeks mySociety with the Prime Minister's office back in Tony Blair's day. As soon as the Tories got in in 2010, they threw the system away. They then set up an entirely new system that spent the first week falling over under the load.

The system has undergone several re-brands and reorganisations since being set up. At first it was exclusively the Prime Minister that was petitioned. In the most recent incarnation, any office of the UK government can be petitioned individually.[1] All petitions have to undergo an approval process, although rejected ones are still published for all to see, and can provide an amusing half-hour's browsing. The current threshold for getting a petition discussed in Parliament is 100,000 signatures, although the threshold for having some lower-level orderly tell you why the petition is batshit crazy, impossible, outside the remit of government, racist or just grammatically incoherent is a little lower.

eFfectiveness

Pretty much all petitions are answered either with a straight "no" or some kind of similar brush-off, but at least their existence is acknowledged.[2] However, despite the official response, the over two million signatures to the petition against a road usage tax (charged per mile of travel) fairly conclusively marked the idea as electoral suicide for the foreseeable future, so they're not entirely futile.

In August 2011, the online petitions gained some media attention by attracting several thousand signatures in favour of restoring capital punishment in the UK, prompting MPs and Ministers to demand that it be seriously discussed in parliament should it reach the appropriate number of supporters. The petition to retain the ban on it, however, gained more support in a shorter amount of time and both were dwarfed by the level of support for returning Formula 1 racing to the BBC.[3]

About the only petition to have actually worked directly is John Graham-Cumming's petition asking Her Majesty's government to formally apologise for the prosecution of mathematician and computer science pioneer Alan Turing for being gay.[4]

sImilar iNitiatives

In the US, the White House has set up We The People,[5] which presently requires 25,000 signatures in 30 days to get a response.

pEtitions of iNterest

  • Kadir-Buxton Method: Petition to use the Kadir-Buxton Method in the NHS to cure the mentally ill. In its time period, it gained the most amusing 47 signatures on a PM's petition so far.
  • Repeal the Climate Change Act: "It is based on a totally false premise—the science of anthropogenic global warming was completely discredited by the 'climategate' scandal." Gained about 1200 signatures.
  • Stop using IE6: About 450 people have signed to tell the government to update its software from 2001.
  • Remove the ban on gay blood donation: Over 6,600 signatures in support of ending discrimination against men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood.
  • No homeopathy: In line with the government's own Science and Technology Committee's findings that homeopathy is a load of bunk, just short of 3,000 people want it removed from the NHS. Just under 4,000 however, are for it.

rEjects

A selection of rejected petitions. Also known as the "shut the fuck up you lunatic" pile.

eXternal links

fOotnotes

  1. epetitions.direct.gov.uk - search by departments
  2. Petition responses
  3. BBC News - E-petitions urge MPs to debate return of death penalty
  4. How Alan Turing Finally Got A Posthumous Apology
  5. https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/
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