Petitions
By snowflake5
@snowflake5 (1579)
United States
January 31, 2007 4:02pm CST
Our dear government, in an effort to engage with the voters, has set up a petition facility on the Downing Street web-site, where any citizen can start a petition and anyone can add their name to existing petitions.
There are some serious petitions, but also some absolute crackers.
The petition that the Prime Minister "stand on his head and juggle icecream" has received 2876 signatures. The petition that the Prime Minister "replace the National Anthem with 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet" has received 1988 signatures.
Once the petitions are closed, the government then posts it's full response.
If you wish to browse the website see
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/list/open?sort=signers
What would you petition your government about and why?
3 responses
@rainbow (6761)
•
1 Feb 07
The juggle ice-cream one is good, ha-ha lol there cannot be a sensible reply to that one. Would he use his feet?
I would ask that special needs kid in "regular" school be given as much help as possible - 0ne-to-one etc as soon as they are diagnosed rather than the diagnosis being ignored until the parents are almost crazy with begging for some sense from the teaching staff. Yes he is 2 years behind but that's not far enough behind to warrant help?????????????????????????????????
A bit selfish of me I know but at the end of the day we have to help our kids or nothing will ever improve.
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
1 Feb 07
That sounds like a good petition. You are also from the UK, right? Well why don't you post your petition, and come back here and advise the exact wording, and I'll go and sign it. Perhaps we can get some other Brits on MyLot to sign it too.
It can't hurt to try right?
1 person likes this
@rainbow (6761)
•
1 Mar 07
Thank-you so much for giving me your best response.
Yes I am from the UK, and after the day I've had today with the pead -finally a bit of a breakthrough I'm very tempted to take your advice, would never have the courage even think of someting like that if you hadn't said. Maybe I should put some more though into this, thank-you!
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
1 Mar 07
The petition site exists so we can feedback to govt. I expect they are so busy they don't know the half of what is going wrong, so let them know and see what happens. They don't have crystal balls, so if we don't tell them we've only ourselves to blame if nothing is done.
I'm sure you can organise Brits on MyLot to support this petition. Just set up a thread with the link to the petition, once you have submitted it to Downing St. Obviously you will have to make it clear in the thread that only Brits are allowed to sign it.
@trouble4u2avoid (2915)
• United States
2 Feb 07
That's pretty cool. I don't think we have something like that here in the USA, but than again I never thought to look. We should definitely have one if we don't.
I would petition for better health care. I think it's the biggest issue we face here. Everyone would have access to medical care.
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
2 Feb 07
I hope America does end up with universal health care. Perhaps when Mrs Clinton is elected.
1 person likes this
@snowflake5 (1579)
• United States
1 Feb 07
LOL, yes. I'm looking forward to seeing what the govt response is to those petitions!
I actually think the petition idea is a good one - it at least allows the govt to know what is bothering the public, and gives the public an outlet to vent. It's much better than using focus groups to find out what people are thinking, as they give answers depending on what questions are asked (so the outcome is controlled by the person running the group). I personally think loads of bad policy has come out of the use of focus groups.
