What I wrote at Lib Dem Voice

November 22, 2006

Petitions what I’ve signed

Credit where it’s due. Number 10’s e-petition website - Tony Blair’s new millennium answer to President Andrew Jackson’s ‘Big Block of Cheese Day’ - is a damn fine innovation.

No one really expects the Government to take any action as a result, but democracy is about letting off steam as well as changing things for the better.

Of course, one side-effect is that we can all expect to be petitioned by friends, colleagues (and random correspondents) to add our names to the petitions, and stake our positions publicly on a range of controversial issues.

Fortunately, the two I’ve so far been directly asked to sign I’ve been more than happy to support:


Jock Coats calls on 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.
No surprise I’m happy to lend my name to that one. If you’d like to as well then sign here.

Graham Marsden calls on the Prime Minister:
to abandon plans to make it a criminal offence to possess "violent pornography".
I hope those who believe in the liberal concept of free speech will agree that we should not legislate against ‘thought crime’ - about which I’ve written here and here.

If you agree, you know what to do.

2 comments:

Liberal Polemic said...

Personally, I think we should treat the petitions page with the contempt it deserves. Still, the temptation is sometimes irresistable.

See my comments at http://liberalpolemic.blogspot.com/2006/11/ive-succumbed-to-piece-of-blairite.html

sanbikinoraion said...

There's one on there on ID cards. Sign it and get all your friends to.