Jock's Place - Your petition to the Prime Minister has been approved - Comments

comment

Jock Coats — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:16:27 +0000

Yes, that's exactly how I feel!

I would have perhaps preferred it if they had added a system for counting citizens' votes in the Early Day Motion type system - ie to Parliament for a start and not the executive.

There is one benefit in giving it an airing though - as I mentioned in my post about Matthew Taylor and the Counter reformation, if they think this is the extent of the internet's interaction with government they've got it hopelessly wrong. I'd be glad of that because it will keep them burbling along while the real revolution in power to the people being institgated by the internet as a quasi-democratic forum in its own right will stay beneath the radar longer, until it's ready to launch!

comment

Tom Papworth — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:19:29 +0000

congratulations, Jock.

Do you now feel strangely elated and ashamed at the same time? Like you've indulged in some sordid act of self gratification?

That is how I felt when I signed the anti-ID Cards petition despite my thinking that the whole petitions page is an exercise in populist politics without any substance at all (see my blog: http://liberalpolemic.blogspot.com/2006/11/ive-succumbed-to-piece-of-blairite.html).

The temptation is great, but in the long run we mustn't give too much air to this dreadful piece of demagoguery."

Your petition to the Prime Minister has been approved

Jock — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:45:52 +0000

Having succumbed to this fad for petitioning Tony Blair over anything from the size of underpants available in Marks & Spencer to whether we renew our nuclear strike capability, I got the news that my petition had been accepted - so please - read it, at the address below, and if you like it, sign it. Let's see how far it can get. It's not as sexy as not banning fox hunting obviously, but many times as important though I do say so myself.

Your petition has been approved by the Number 10 web team, and is now available on the Number 10 website at the following address:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/AbolishDCLG/

Your petition reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish the
Department of Communities and Local Government and allow local
people to decide in consultation with the local representatives
they elect to do the job how best to run their localities

Local government has been subject to far too much tinkering,
target setting and control by central government for decades.
If government is by the consent of the governed then surely
that consent, for local affairs, is given in elections to local
councillors. Instead of handing down a menu from on high of
how local government will be permitted to operate, allow real
innovation and local consultation to decide how to run and fund
their local communities.

Thanks for submitting your petition.

-- the ePetitions team