'nother petition

Indeed, that's the third time it's been posted here now in about 4 weeks! Twice today IIRC...

But it's surely worth spreading around, almost nobody in the country actually wants this and the number of signatories is rising fast, literally tens of thousands a day!. People on this group are presumably going to get hit badly by it, having to pay for a black box for every one of our vehicles and estimated bills for most of more in two months than we pay in a year for road tax!. Nobody can honestly think historic vehicles will be exempt when it's all about tracking our movements and piling on the tax burden.. Greg

Sure but once a month will do.

On or around 10 Jan 2007 01:25:50 -0800, "Greg" enlightened us thusly:

I've had it twice by email as well.

On or around 10 Jan 2007 01:25:50 -0800, "Greg" enlightened us thusly:

181000-odd now.

230,900 now. But it won't make a jot of difference. The petitions are addressed to Bliar, but do you think he or his cling-ons will take any notice? I'll have some of what you're smoking if you do! If almost a million people can turn up in person and march in London (never mind all those who also voiced their opposition but couldn't make it in person to London on the day) to make a protest against a proposed law and that law still gets passed, what hope do you think a wanky little online petition is going to have? Nine out of ten people in this country at the last election did not vote for the present bunch of liars holding power in Westminster and yet somehow those liars keep saying that the "overwhelming majority have given them a mandate to govern". Can someone please tell me how one in ten can be an overwhelming majority?

OK let's all take a leaf out of your book then and wring our hands and tell everyone other than those in power that we don't like them, that's the way forward! Well done Steve, show us how it's done ;-)

Don't be daft man, we don't think that he's going to hold high-level emergency meetings etc etc because of it, but public opinion does matter on many things so it's important that you use as many means as possible to make that opinion known. Also this is not as big an issue as the war so public opinion is likely to matter more.

Because of the "silent majority" - if you didn't vote against us, you must be for us. Time for a quoracy rule: if 2/3 of the electorate don't turn up, the result is only provisional; elections must be re-held every six months until the lazy bastards get off their fat arses and put a cross in a box. And make sure the Monster Raving Loony Party has a candidate in every seat, so that people can register a proper protest vote.

Stuart

Srtgray wrote: And make sure the Monster Raving Loony Party has a

Waddya mean - they're the ones that are in now !

Steve

I'm sure he does hold high-level meetings about such things, but not to say "Ah, we've got that wrong, let's have a re-think", but rather to come up with ways to discredit those standing up for themselves or the rights of others. This was clearly evident in the hunting issue and blatantly so towards the end of the fuel blockade where Smiling Tony and his chums started ranting on about intimidation, despite no-one being able to find any. That's Smiling Tony's major fault, he gets a hair brained idea from his quiche-eating chums and then that *will* become law, even to the extent of cutting Parliament out if the process until it's too late. He's a very nasty piece of work who has harmed democracy in this country and will only be remembered for his failures - starting with the Dome right through to Iraq. I can't think of a single piece of leglislation that could be deemed to have been a success.

That's better now...

Richard

They get away with it because so many people can't be bothered to get to the poling stations at elections, but you're advocating not voting when you have an oportunity without even getting off your arse, think about what you're saying.

At the very least if we get a lot of votes against it the slimy bastards will be made to squirm on TV when they ignore us and I for one will enjoy seeing that, the more they're shown up the better in my book. Greg

Those in power were told at the last election that they and their policies weren't liked or wanted but it hasn't made any difference. Maybe you'd like to suggest a way of getting the message through when the primary opinion poll of the land has failed to deliver.

The cynic in me says that he isn't even aware that the petition section of the site exists, never mind gets to see or hear any of the results and opinions from it. Perhaps he or one of his henchmen reads this group and can provide evidence that this petition section isn't just a "make 'em feel good" way of letting people vent off steam without anyone with an office off the main corridors having to take any notice of it.

Still wearing my cynic hat I'm afraid, but I'm always happy to receive pleasant surprises ... and sign the occasional petition or two. ;-)

Steve

Ah, sorry, I forgot to add the "Official" to the name. The party are in fact the "Official Monster Raving Loony Party" (OMRLP) precisely to distinguish themselves (ourselves? No, not a member...yet) from the "unofficial" loonies that get voted in each time. :)

Stuart

Being a fat lazy bastard, I'll turn up if there was a "Non Of The Above" box to tick. In the meantime I'm not prepared to vote for any party that assumes that I agree with *all* their policies, and can't be arsed to check now and again by having referrendums etc.

Richard

That's easy - referrendums.

I'll bet it does get reported to him - just in case anyone asks a question. Not that he'd every actually answer any such question!

There's no harm in trying. After all, if Watt Tyler and his mates had decided not to bother.........

Richard

>

That's part of politics, but my point was that wringing your hands and whining "what's the use in trying to do anything!" can hardly be described as anything approaching a way forwards. You have to make your voice heard rather than crying into a pillow.

"Oh what's the use! We might as well just bend over and take it!"

Well, that's your suggestion, I think I'll pass ;-)

Basically you use whatever methods you have of making yourself heard, you can of course say that they ignored public opinion in several areas but it's hard for them to do it in all areas so you have to make your voice heard as the louder your voice is and the more there are of you, the more likely they are to listen. In cases like the Iraq war, they were so committed that they ignored a quite extreme amount of protest but that's not the norm, they can't do that routinely.

In cases like hunting, while there were protests, at the time the bill was more popular than it was unpopular unfortunately although nanny-state fears may have eroded the initial support somewhat. In the case of something like ID cards or pay-per-mile road tax, public opinion at the moment is too much against it for them to consider introducing it but over the next 10 years (which is their timescale) they will sell it to the public. It's started already with cheaper insurance policies for those who have black boxes in their cars and so pay insurace based on how much driving they do. So chances are when the bill comes in, the majority of the public will be offered trinkets in exchange for their privacy and will willingly grab the trinkets.

I'm very good at trying to make my voice heard, for example I spent a couple of days walking round London with several hundred thousand other people trying to make their voices heard. Were we listened to? No. So I reserve the right to claim there is no point in trying, because I now *know* for a fact it's a waste of time - have you every actually tried to get yourself heard?

Richard

On or around Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:59:32 +0000, beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

Personally, I always vote. There are always shades of grey, and there's always scope for voting for someone other than the one you don't to get in. You can either do so tactically, by voting for the next-most-likely, or register a protest vote by e.g. voting green party, for example, not because you think the green candidate is likely to be elected but so as to get your vote into the statistics. If the nulab candidate is elected on 15% of the possible votes because the turnout is only 30%, then they will assume that half the 70% of nonvoters is for them; this may even be the case.

But personally, the main reason I vote is so that I can honestly claim "I didn't vote for them, I voted for someone else" rather than "I didn't vote"

There are plenty of places in the world even now where you don't get the chances, so don't waste it while you've got it.

As for petitions etc. it can't do any harm.