8 hours agoShareSaveJennifer McKiernanShareSaveGetty Images/THE THIN BLUE PAWAs long as humans have been writing down important information, others have been pulling their leg.So it’s no surprise that serious petitions to governments have always been interspersed with tongue-in-cheek campaigns designed to raise a laugh.Some of the greatest civil rights advances started with petitions to government, including the abolition of slavery. It’s hard to say the same for the petition to rename raccoons Trash Pandas.As parliament marks the 10th anniversary of its e-petitions system, the enthusiasm for starting and signing petitions shows no sign of abating, with 57% of people saying they had signed some kind of petition more generally in the past year, according to Office for National Statistics survey data in 2022.There’s something about the simple act of signing your name to add your support to a cause close to your heart that has allowed the art of petitioning to continue to flourish, even in the digital age.If anything, the launch of Downing Street’s own e-petition site in 2006 opened the famous black door of No 10 wider than ever to the public, which inevitably led to a flurry of spoof campaigns.A petition calling for broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson to be made prime minister was quickly backed by more than 50,000 people, although a jokey YouTube response from Downing Street led to Gordon Brown’s government dourly being accused of wasting taxpayers’ money.By 2011, the new Tory-Lib Dem coalition government decided to move e-petitions from a government website to a parliamentary site and tighten up the rules, but still the joke petitions sneaked through.These included a call to make wrongly describing a casserole with a pastry lid as a pie a criminal offence, demands to bring Bacardi Breezers back to the UK, and to legislate so “Have I Got News for You” is broadcast during political crises.Finally, in 2015, a committee of MPs was set up to decide which petitions should be debated by MPs in Westminster Hall, once they have managed to get more than 100,000 signatures, which few do.This is where backbenchers can sound off about issues that have not made the government agenda, after which a junior minister is sent along to make a speech, praising contributors and usually failing to promise any government action. But that has not stopped the British public from petitioning for such important issues as ensuring UK road signs feature a geometrically correct football, for the Eurovision Song Contest to be made a national holiday, and to recognise Jediism as a religion.EPAOne notable success where the law was changed following an e-petition was Finn’s Law, for German Shepherd police dog Finn who nearly died from wounds to his skull and chest after he was stabbed with a 30cm (12in) hunting knife while chasing a suspect. Finn’s handler Dave Wardell said a colleague launched the petition as the pair were receiving emergency treatment in hospital, calling for those who attack police service animals to receive the same criminal charges as for attacking a police officer.Mr Wardell, who believes his loyal dog “undoubtedly” saved his life, said they hoped the petition would “galvanise” the outpouring of emotion around the attack, although they didn’t expect to reach 130,000 signatures in only 11 days.THE THIN BLUE PAW”Without that petition we wouldn’t have got the support from MPs in the House of Commons that led to Finn’s Law,” he said. “The support just exploded and people would say ‘I’ve never spoken to my MP before and now I feel like I’ve got into Westminster’.”With local groups like schools and Women’s Ins …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn8 hours agoShareSaveJennifer McKiernanShareSaveGetty Images/THE THIN BLUE PAWAs long as humans have been writing down important information, others have been pulling their leg.So it’s no surprise that serious petitions to governments have always been interspersed with tongue-in-cheek campaigns designed to raise a laugh.Some of the greatest civil rights advances started with petitions to government, including the abolition of slavery. It’s hard to say the same for the petition to rename raccoons Trash Pandas.As parliament marks the 10th anniversary of its e-petitions system, the enthusiasm for starting and signing petitions shows no sign of abating, with 57% of people saying they had signed some kind of petition more generally in the past year, according to Office for National Statistics survey data in 2022.There’s something about the simple act of signing your name to add your support to a cause close to your heart that has allowed the art of petitioning to continue to flourish, even in the digital age.If anything, the launch of Downing Street’s own e-petition site in 2006 opened the famous black door of No 10 wider than ever to the public, which inevitably led to a flurry of spoof campaigns.A petition calling for broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson to be made prime minister was quickly backed by more than 50,000 people, although a jokey YouTube response from Downing Street led to Gordon Brown’s government dourly being accused of wasting taxpayers’ money.By 2011, the new Tory-Lib Dem coalition government decided to move e-petitions from a government website to a parliamentary site and tighten up the rules, but still the joke petitions sneaked through.These included a call to make wrongly describing a casserole with a pastry lid as a pie a criminal offence, demands to bring Bacardi Breezers back to the UK, and to legislate so “Have I Got News for You” is broadcast during political crises.Finally, in 2015, a committee of MPs was set up to decide which petitions should be debated by MPs in Westminster Hall, once they have managed to get more than 100,000 signatures, which few do.This is where backbenchers can sound off about issues that have not made the government agenda, after which a junior minister is sent along to make a speech, praising contributors and usually failing to promise any government action. But that has not stopped the British public from petitioning for such important issues as ensuring UK road signs feature a geometrically correct football, for the Eurovision Song Contest to be made a national holiday, and to recognise Jediism as a religion.EPAOne notable success where the law was changed following an e-petition was Finn’s Law, for German Shepherd police dog Finn who nearly died from wounds to his skull and chest after he was stabbed with a 30cm (12in) hunting knife while chasing a suspect. Finn’s handler Dave Wardell said a colleague launched the petition as the pair were receiving emergency treatment in hospital, calling for those who attack police service animals to receive the same criminal charges as for attacking a police officer.Mr Wardell, who believes his loyal dog “undoubtedly” saved his life, said they hoped the petition would “galvanise” the outpouring of emotion around the attack, although they didn’t expect to reach 130,000 signatures in only 11 days.THE THIN BLUE PAW”Without that petition we wouldn’t have got the support from MPs in the House of Commons that led to Finn’s Law,” he said. “The support just exploded and people would say ‘I’ve never spoken to my MP before and now I feel like I’ve got into Westminster’.”With local groups like schools and Women’s Ins …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
