Petitions

I have often wondered about the effects of online petitions. Surely me typing my name into a box won't have much effect? Certainly not as much as going and standing outside Downing Street with a placard would, right?

I had a look for successful online petitions. There are a number of sites which will tell you about the victories which have been achieved with online petitions. Change.org gives you their selection of best victories and it does help you to believe that you can make a difference by signing.

However, the sorts of things that seem to be successful are - whilst important - perhaps only small victories in the grand scheme of things. Saving Meriam Yehya Ibrahim from execution and Ghonchech Ghavami are the two big ones they herald. If you get further down the list, you see some about saving a pub or getting an advert removed.

These smaller victories will help to change the culture of society over the long term but the absence of any effect on major government legislation sticks out like a Tory policy which will help those on benefits.

There are a few issues that I have been concerned about since last Friday and I have signed petitions about them (a list is below and I may well grow this as time goes on) but I am under no illusion that the change I am making by doing so is significant. It is better than nothing and as I have vowed to be more engaged, I will sign any petition which sits with my viewpoint.

Despite appearances to the contrary, politicians are human beings, and as such, pressure that we can put on them directly may have an effect. If you want to sign an online petition, it is not too much more effort to contact your MP - either on Twitter or by email - to tell them why you think the issue is important and to let them know directly.

One of the issues with petitions is that they might not always reach their intended recipient (it depends how organised the person arranging the petition is) and that their intended recipient is probably only one of 650 MPs. There is a list here of all MPs on Twitter although I intend to verify this and potentially update it/provide a list of my own at some point.


Petitions I have signed:

Keep the band on Fox Hunting

Don't repeal the Human Right Act

Reform our voting system to include Proportional Representation