By silicon.com, 20 February 2007 17:40
Have you had an email from Tony Blair this week? If you've been involved in the fierce debate on the government's controversial road-charging plans or the ID card scheme, there's a good chance you have indeed got mail from the Prime Minister sitting in your inbox.
Why is Tony emailing you? It's related to the e-petitions hosted on the PM's Downing Street website, which hit the headlines over the past week when more than 1.5 million people went online to sign a petition calling for the government to scrap the plans for a 'pay-per-mile' road-charging scheme using satellite technology to track car journeys.
The volume of protesters signing up even brought down the website at one point and forced one unnamed minister to call the person who came up with the idea of allowing petitions on the PM's website "a prat".
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The road-charging petition closes this week and Blair will be sending out an email to all of those who signed it, dismissing their concerns and arguing that it is the only way to beat congestion and pollution.
And it isn't only road-charging protesters getting the personal touch from Blair. More than 27,000 people who signed a separate petition calling for the ID cards scheme to be scrapped received an email from the PM this week too.
In it Blair argues ID cards will help secure the UK's borders and tackle fraud, crime and terrorism. He also let slip that the government will allow police to check every fingerprint held on the National Identity Register to try and solve crimes.
In the end, though, the net result of the petitions is getting quite a few people frothy-mouthed and angry about car taxes and ID cards. The whole e-petition idea is, unfortunately, unlikely to give ordinary people much influence on government policy. Don't forget more than one million people taking to the streets to protest against going to war with Iraq wasn't enough to force the government to change its policy.
On the other hand it's a case of the government being damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. At least the e-petitions appear to be encouraging some participation in the democratic process, which has to be better than citizens remaining ignorant or apathetic. The petitions are certainly proving popular - aside from these two petitions on road taxes and ID cards, there are more than 3,000 others currently on the go on the Downing Street website.
We're off now to sign the petition calling for the PM to 'improve letterboxes' and the one calling for all traffic policemen to be forced to wear clown suits while on duty...
And while we're on the subject of petitions, don't forget to sign up for silicon.com's own petition as part of our 'Fair Wi-fi' campaign against rip-off charges for wireless internet access in hotels.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Brian Murray
The real big picture here is the slow emergence of e-democracy, as perhaps the key indicator that society is ready to fully accept an electronic age! There are a number of strong pros, and an equal number of strong cons, to this as far as I can see - some of which are by no means limited to the electronic arena.
I think an obvious con must be security but then it should be remembered, as with so many issue raised around electronic media, the traditional systems have not exactly be free from problems in this regard.
The leading pro must be the ability to extend the voting ability to all, at remarkably low long-term cost. The flip side of the security question also being the immediacy of the results - although live trend reporting could be argued as both a pro and a con.
When we consider the situation a little further e-voting allows for two changes to the voting framework:
(1) increased voting granularity - i.e. relatively minor points may now be voted upon, and on a more regular basis. We could all have a hand on the national steering wheel, but do we really want questions designed by spin doctors and all decisions made on the whims of national opinion?
(2) specialist voting - i.e. we could have topics aligned with group of special interest. For example, medical professionals on NHS, economists on taxation, scientists on science and the environment, etc etc ... This opens a can of worms around qualification, influence and so forth but does seem to be one of the main strengths of the route we may be embarking on.
I am not so much expressing an opinion here as highlighting an area which deserves more open debate than it has received.
2. Ruth
At least e-petitions are engaging voters rather than encouraging the grey blanket of apathy that allowed Labour back in with only slightly over 1/3 of eligible voters bothering to do so. Also, comments like 'who's the prat who suggested e-petitions' from a minister & the fact that Tony Blair is effectively ignoring the concerns of the Road Tax petitioners will, I think, suddenly wake people up to the fact that real democracy does not exist in the UK & that perhaps something needs to be done about that. In an ideal world, voting would be compulsory - which might give us a very different UK!
3. Karen Challinor
sadly all the petition site seems to be doing is increasing apathy in the electorate
it is teaching us the hard lesson that no matter how loudly we complain we will still not be heard by those in power
the ID card email for example rehashed every point the PM has made on the issue despite every one of those same points having been knocked down by counter arguements in the press and occasionally even in the house
it is condescending to say the least as basically he is saying we do not understand the issue
yet my only other avenue for raising issues with parliament is effectively closed as well, my MP does not share my concerns on a large number of issues and will not take them further no matter what I say, yet the MP in the constituency literally 50 yards down the road would but isn't allowed to as I'm not in his area
so I am disenfranchised, I have no voice, how will I raise my concerns in parliament ? move house ?
I'm seriously thinking of starting a petition on this website demanding the removal of the petition website on the grounds that it does not and will not allow the public to influence policy
if it does not happen in the ballot box then it does not happen as far as the views of the electorate are concerned
4. Karen Challinor
I have arrived at the conclusion that the petitions website is not merely ineffective, it is actually damaging the political process
people start a petition on the site and spend vast amounts of time and effort publicising it and getting other people to sign
yet a look through the closed petitions reveals that no petition to date has been successful in changing government policy
so all that time and effort has been wasted
further if that time and effort had been spent in other legitemate forms of protest, such as lobbying mp's and making it clear that votes in the next election count on the answer, then something may have been achieved
admittedly it may not but an mp looking at losing their seat has more incentive to act
instead people sign and then sit back and do nothing else until the petition expires, giving the government several months of relative peace in which to continue down the road it is heading
then when a negative verdict is passed on the petition it is likely to be too late to explore other avenues of protest
so far from being an aid to democracy the petition website is actually preventing the people from affecting the political process
it is ineffectual, achieves nothing for the electorate and is a distraction at best
it should be removed