Do you drive a car in the UK??? Look here..... (off topic)

[msmithy2003]

The road lobby are some of the most ridiculous people on record. They bleat about speed cameras and laws to prevent people using mobile phones when driving, but when somebody gets mowed down, they don't suffer. Killers on the road don't even get banned from driving for life. If anything I'd like to see much tougher penalties on drivers that break the law...

[andy250]

he he he!!!!! i dont need to tax my car anymore!!!! its gone to the great crusher in the sky.

Had a mad moment of power when they let me press the button to crush it was quite cool really.

regards

Andy

[TottyMcGee]

Putting aside the issue itself, I really don't know what to make of this petition. Like many people, my first instinct on reading this popular chain message was to dismiss it as yet another slacktivism scam designed to farm ad hits, but from what I've heard on the radio it seems the petition itself is in fact the McCoy and seems to actually be hosted on the government's website (rather than a spoofed version of it), though wherever it is actually hosted it has now crashed under demand.

If the government really have taken to posting e-petition pages about proposed policy I can't imagine what they hope to gain from it. If anyone thinks it's a serious way to allow the general public to directly influence new laws, dream on; as the adage goes, e-signatures aren't worth the paper they're (not) written on. E-petitions are worth slightly less than regular petitions, which themselves are taken with a condescending smile and filed in the recycle bin. I could happily sign this petition, or indeed any other, as Henry Horse from Derby, Mickey Take from Shrewsbury and Lucy Lastic from Loughborough. The idea of it being a lame attempt to make the government look net-savvy and listening doesn't feel right either - spin exercises of this sort (viral or otherwise) rely on focusing attention on positive things and petitions are by their nature negative - I've never seen a petition headed "We the undersigned think everything is fine and dandy and couldn't agree more with everything the government is doing".

[muckypup]

I had to check to see that the site was legit too and was very suprised when it was.

I found this quote on the bbc site and I think it reflects what Miss Helen was saying to a degree.

When asked if he would take into account the views of those who signed the petition, Mr Alexander told the BBC that the government would "listen to people".

It was important to "deliberate, discuss" and then take a decision, he said.

"Ultimately, it will be a matter for parliament to make decisions but it is important that people have the chance to have their say and no doubt people will offer a range of opinions during that debate."

I.E. They didnt know people would find the petition and they thought they could just say "well no one signed the petition, so youve said it was alright". It reminds me of the Hitchhikers guide:

"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."

"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

"But the plans were on display ..."

"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"That's the display department."

"With a flashlight."

"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"

"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

[DungeonMasterOne]

No10 launched the petitions website a while ago, anyone can create a petition, though in theory at least you have to be a UK citizen to do so, or to sign. I signed the "fair treatment for Gurkhas" one earlier today.

The guy who created this one though is, IIRC, a member of the "Association Of British Drivers", a somewhat scary organisation which seems to only just stop short of endorsing the kind of people who bomb speed cameras. I read their "manifesto" once, and the utter contempt it displayed for anyone not using the roads in a motor vehicle was truly frightning.

The site itself is fun - the currently active ones range from the completely sensible to the completely insane (you can sign one to Ban Christmas if you want too!), and the list of rejected ones (accessible from a link on the front page) is a complete hoot!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk

Am tempted to create one to require all local authorities and water park owners to permit fully clothed bathing and repeal all laws and bylaws preventing people from wearing street clothes in swiming pools, water rides, etc. Or perhaps a petition to persuade the government to issue advice to bathers on beaches that Victorian-style swimwear offers far better protection from harmful ultraviolet rays than modern bikinis or shorts / trunks do.

[Hayley]

Hi

I think in the last few days this petition has proven to be exactly as suspected namely a complete waste of time. I suppose it does get people debating any proposals but it also gives an outlet for the mad fringe who will exaggerate any ideas and use it as an excuse to rant. Trust good old Sarah Kennedy to fall into that category!

Even though I spend most of my life in a car, I really think something has to be done about congestion. I am not sure this is the fairest way - or that it was ever a serious government proposal - but I suspect we will get a lot more smaller versions (like city centre congestion charges) which I see very little wrong with.

Personally if anyone said I no longer was allowed to drive for three days in continual rain then sit in a traffic jam in Peterborough I would be delighted!

Love
Hayley (off the road for a day - woopee!)

[messyslime]

Here's an article about the petition:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6354735.stm

[TottyMcGee]

Thanks for the link - oh, my aching sides!

Mr Steinberg believes the Number 10 online petitions are a lot less open to abuse than signed ones, because one email address has only one vote and anyone can make up a written name and signature. And it does not appear there has been any highly-organised viral campaign on road charging.

So much for the cyber-savvy consultants, who appear to be the only people in the country not to have seen ninety instances of the spam message that started this thread (though I will concede that the campaign wasn't "highly organised") and who, though offhandly acknowledging on the site FAQ that it's easy to set up a free webmail account (ironically they use it as an argument in defence of anti-abuse measures) don't seem to have grasped that anyone might use multiple free addresses (or for that matter completely made up ones; is anyone actually counting the bouncebacks?) in order to sign multiple times. Or maybe they just took these issues as moot seeing as how no actual consequences are ever likely to come from an e-petition anyway, beyond making the signees feel important and listened-to (ho ho).

The not-so-funny part is the truckload of taxpayer's money that'll have been sunk into this fiasco.

[DungeonMasterOne]

You do have to be able to use the email address you give, they send you a mail with a "confirm" link before they add your name (I signed a different one, some of them are quite sensible).

I think it's one of the many ways they're trying to get people interested in politics again but they keep missing the main point - a system where all the main parties pretty much agree on general policy simply isn't interesting. I suspect interest in politics would only really be re-ignited if one of the radical parties were to gain serious voter following. But then I'm not sure I'd want to live somewhere where the Comunists or the BNP were really in the asendancy either...

[messyslime]

*bump*

The petition has closed, with nearly two million signatures. Everyone can now expect a personal email from Tony Blair (probably signed "Tone")

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6381153.stm