EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Is this the first time an internet petition has achieved anything at all?

It may be.

Once you mentally walk down the various paths and see where they lead one ends up at one of the extremes... there's no middle-way, they all veer eventually.

Pub ?
:)

Not even close.

People even write articles about how some petitions have been successful. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/06/22/changeorg-successful-petitions_n_7635750.html

Of course the link between petition and outcome can be pretty tenuous. But just because you can't prove that a petition actually directly and individually led to it's intended result, that doesn't mean it didn't achieve anything.

Take a look, for instance, at the change.org petition to the Canadian Government on banning microbead plastics. The Canadian Government itself doesn't recognise petitions. However, the level of support that the petition garnered was enough to prompt politicians to start looking at the research around microbead plastics and come to the conclusion that they deserved to be banned on environmental grounds. The petition itself didn't achieve the ban, but it got the right people interested in the matter in the right way that led them to want the outcome that the petition was asking for. I would count that as a success.

Of course, as The Guardian rightly point out, petitioning through DirectGov is an easy way to throw your own campaign under the bus. If you're savvy then you can use a petition to back up your campaign and press home a political advantage to bring about the type of change that you're looking for. That's how you get a petition to achieve something.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on all* of those PMs, but wasn't John Major appointed at the end of 1990? He then called an election in 1992. Clearly the appointment of a new (majority) party leader = a New PM, but that doesn't effect the argument over whether an election should be called to allow the population to ratify that decision.

*Brown was a mupet and should have blaitently immediately called an election, rather than waiting until everyone hated him and be bullied into it. However, in his case there is a strong argument to say the country knew he was to be Blair's successor and most actually expected Blair to step down well before he did.

Well my petition to change the national anthem to Gold by Spandau Ballet was roundly rejected.

Arguably the Constituents who voted for the 200 MPs should be factored into this calculation in some way.

A good mandate is hard to find.

I must be slightly dyslexic. Almost evert time I've seen 'mandate' over the last few pages I read it as 'mandem'. It makes all this horribleness ever so slightly more bearable. it also reminds me of this gem. Albeit way too late as the gammon faced shit is now off to count his monies..

Well my petition to change the national anthem to Gold by Spandau Ballet was roundly rejected.

I'd take citizenship to vote in favour of that.

https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/11321

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to replace the national anthem with ‘Gold’ by Spandau Ballet.

What we specifically want to see, is that the National Anthem be changed in favour of “Gold” by Spandau Ballet. Further, we would like our National Olympic Committee to decree that Tony Hadley is the only person permitted to handle medal ceremonies where the National Anthem is played. We don’t mind what he wears when he does this, but preference is given towards a a gold coloured suit.

This would have made the world a better place.

I'd take citizenship to vote in favour of that.

Would you like to change the national anthem to Gold by Spandau Ballet?

Yes - Citizen
No - Not Citizen

This would have made the world a better place.

Always believe in your soul

your indestructable.

your indestructable.

Gold!

cheers.

As I said, I remain inconsolable and bitterly disappointed that our national anthem still isn't Gold.

ehm... wtafigo?

Well yes.

Perhaps it was the verses. I don't actually remember those, maybe they were not appropriate for a national anthem.

The chorus though... spot on.

Wasn't there a bongo middle-eight too?

Imagine the band of the Coldstream Guards having to play bongos because someone on the internet changed the national anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntG50eXbBtc

I've never noticed before, the mild resemblance to @Señor_Bear

If it were me, the song would be called 'what comes after silver and bronze?'

You mean before silver and bronze

There's an app for that isn't there? Westminstr?

Is the lookalike thread still working?
It gets very distracting settling down to kids tv and having @Señor_Bear pop up.