It appears that despite the turmoil and bad news concerning Libya and the global economy this week, the public’s attention is more focussed on the resurrected e-petition system on the Downing Street website. First brought in by the previous government, but dropped before the 2010 General Election, it was recently revived by the coalition as a means of addressing voters’ increasing disillusionment with politics. The system allows members of the public to submit and sign petitions on issues that they believe should be considered by parliament. Any petition that attracts at least 100,000 signatures will be passed to the cross-party commons backbench committee who will decide if it is worthy of a parliamentary debate.
It is not altogether surprising that such a site has attracted considerable public attention. There are, of course, those who have treated the site as a joke by posting ridiculous suggestions such as making cannabis legal and making bodybuilding compulsory to improve the nation’s health. One petition in 2009, which attracted nearly 10,000 signatures, called for Jeremy Clarkson to be made Prime Minister (though let’s face it, he couldn’t have been much worse than Gordon Brown).
The majority, however, seem to have taken the site seriously by using it to promote issues that they genuinely believe in. The popularity of petitions calling for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union and a withdrawal from the European Human Rights Act reflects how frustrated many Britain’s have become with the continual interference of the EU in the way that their country is governed. The fact that the most popular petitions of all support the reinstatement of capital punishment also shows how many feel that our current system is not doing enough to punish criminals and prevent them from committing more crimes. In effect, what the site is really allowing people to do is to highlight issues which politicians are refusing to confront.
The growing divide between politicians and the people who elect them in this country is a cause for serious concern. The problem, which I hoped would get better with the election of a new Parliament, has unfortunately continued to get worse over the last few years. This is mainly due to the coalition’s worryingly consistent record on breaking promises on issues like tuition fees, Europe and criminal justice. The electorate has been increasingly left feeling that they are being completely ignored by politicians. Many of them have lost faith in the political system to such an extent that they have simply stopped voting in the belief that politicians use them purely as a means of securing power so they can pursue their own agenda.
The Downing Street website may be gimmicky but it offers an opportunity for politicians to begin earning back the voters faith. Leader of the Commons Sir George Young has said that MP’s cannot simply ignore the voters when they express their views in this way which highlights the key strength of the site. Politicians will at last be forced to confront the issues that they often shy away from. Issues like immigration and the Human Rights Act will no longer be presented as mattering only to so-called right wing zealots but the legitimate concerns of standard voters. At the very least, politicians will be obliged to provide reasons for why they are ignoring issues which are of key importance to voters. They must seize this website as the first step down the long road of reengaging people with politics and restoring their faith in the political system. Failure may result in consequences more severe than any of us could imagine.
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