Persistent Petitions

It seems that everyone wants to tell the government what to do at the moment. I’m seeing a lot of invites to sign on-line petitions. And you can see why it’s a call to arms. Petitions are more likely to drum up a response from your local MP rather than asking them direct first. If they can see that a clear number of people care about the issue; it must be discussed in Parliament. But what the figures don’t show is how many people from each constituency are involved. But I’d imagine that the MPs would be able to obtain that information; if only by waiting for their constituents to contact them. It’s then just a case of acting accordingly in order to maintain their popularity. But governments can play by the same rules too if they don’t have enough beef to make a bill become law. The power of Twitter…