In the news

six days later (WARNING! contains dead people)

I actually went on their site this morning for the first time in years just to see how/if they'd changed their tune.

MailOnline ran a vaguely sympathetic article yesterday, which risked exposing the presence of some basic human decency somewhere in the ranks of the Daily Mail workforce.

Glad to see they're back on message.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105991 may (I think) be the fastest ever petition to hit the 100k needed for a debate, and the rate at which it's growing is phenomenal, 27K last night, 107k 20 minutes ago, 112k now...

Make that 113,169

yeah you can refresh the page every few seconds and see how fast it's going up. amazing!

sadly i feel petitioning a government to do more for refugees that is already the subject of a UN investigation regarding the way it treats disabled people is going to fall on the couldn't-give-a-fuckest of ears.

voted tory? go fuck yourself.

It's one of the tools that we have, and at least the parliament petitions that get the 100k do something (force a debate in the commons to be considered, and most get one). The more that sign that one, the better, it's the one place that a petition does something.

And no, I don't think that it's everything that we can do, but it is one little thing that pretty much everyone can do.

Even better would be if those people then wrote to their MPs about it - https://www.writetothem.com/ makes that easy, go do that too.

Beyond potentially making someone in power have to think about crafting a response, it also allows people in the UK to demonstrate that not everyone is a heartless xenophobic thug. Public support for sympathetic (or some may say, human) responses are important when much of the media has been acting as if the UK is a victim in some sort of scheme to steal the countries overly generous benefits.

by no means am i suggesting it's something anyone shouldn't do - it's a damn site more constructive than posting pictures of dead babies for starters - i am however dubious about the tory government's appetite for giving a ha'penny toss in the HOC considering their lamentable attitude towards the poor & desperate in their own country.

http://donate.unhcr.org/

Keep on signing, keep on signing…

And thanks for posting it, MrDrem.

I've signed the petition. Do they get debated in the commons, and has that ever resulted in a change in policy?

If any change will be made will be thanks to the pressure from the EU, who wants UK sharing the burden. They have fucking economy issues to put on the table with threatening manners for the Tory scum, thats the only language they eat.

But signing is good.

Petitions that go over 100k signatures are 'considered' for debate. I'm not aware of one that has hit the number that hasn't had a debate, but I don't follow them that closely.

I think that some of the debates have shifted policy, but again, I can't point to a definitive example. In some cases it may be that the policy shift happens prior to the debate so that the government can look like the goodies in the debate, but its carefully setup so that not much happens on the ground. The publics attention span often isn't that long sadly.

BTW, I'm sure the Tories will be good enough to turn this in profit.
If they spend 1m the will tell you they have spent 10m and find a new excuse for further cuts, with 90% of profit for themselves.

I'm not aware of one that has hit the number that hasn't had a debate

There are quite a few of the petitions listed here (over 100,000 signatures):

• https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions
  that don't have links to the subsequent debates.
  
  

Examples:-

• Badger Cull: https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/38257
  
• School holiday prices: https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/46455
  

Can't wait for The Theresa May's Breath.

I hadn't spotted that bit of the site :)

That makes things a lot easier to see, I like that they are ordered by the number of signatures on them, this one being in the top 10 petitions after around 24 hours (I think). It'll be interesting to see if the momentum behind it keeps up.

It's passed the anti-immigration petition with the most signatures, so that's nice.

and way past the 'David Cameron to take serious diplomatic action against commercial whaling' petition. HA! FUCK YOU, FISH BASTARDS!

Mam*m*als.

I think that some of the debates have shifted policy, but again, I can't point to a definitive example

A petition was raised to exempt air ambulances from VAT on fuel expenditure. It exceeded the 100k signature mark. It was debated (albeit by all parties vigourously agreeing with the motion). The relevant legislation was subsequently amended to include all search and rescue organisations thus meeting and exceeding the aims of the petition to include the organisations such as mountain rescue services as well.

I've refreshed that page every couple of seconds for a minute (having a slow day yes) and it's amazing how quickly its flying up!

^ MAMILs? (In XL Wapha Aerosuits?)

Mamals.

Middle Aged Mammals and Lovely Sealife?