online petitions, behind the facade

  • J L
    • 54 posts
    September 15, 2015 1:22 PM BST
    There has sprung up a culture of using the internet/social media in order to sway politics.

    Online petitions, you sign them, in the hopes of changing government policy.

    In order to have the petition "Considered" for discussion in parliment, your petition will generally (I believe and semantics of exact numbers is really sort of irrelevant, so long as I'm in the right ball park, more we are just discussing the mechanics) 100,000 signatures.

    If your petition does get 100,000 signatures, that does not guarantee it will get discussed, there are some reasonably, but not reasonably hidden rules, just basic English/grammer, and IIRC then let's say I wanted to ban hunting with ferrets, but this is unlikely to be discussed because there is no real valid history of this being an issue, and yes, this bit does entirley mean that the powers that be can ignore anything they see fit.

    Sometimes I sign online petitions, yes the UK Parliment ones too, but I suggest you don't get your hopes up, it's not straight forward and it's not guaranteed.