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Monday Feb 12, 2007
'Senior Ministers' unite against democracy
The writers of the BBC's The Thick of It must be rolling on the floor with laughter tonight. In their recent Christmas special they showed the horror of modern politicians at blogs or anything online that made them vulnerable to public comment. It seems life hasn't taken long to catch up with art.
Touted as a great leap forward in e-democracy the number 10 website has been allowing people to set up their own petitions and try to rally support for them, with an understanding that the government will then be prepared to at least consider the results.
Well the problem seems to be that it is working, people are looking at petitions and people are signing them. This kind of horrendous abuse of democracy has clearly ruffled a few feathers, with Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander forced to defend new government policies on road tax that one petition targets.
That petition has already seen over 1,000,000 people sign up to it, and to be clear, that requires a UK address and email verification. So will the government listen to this petition or will they find a way to ignore it?If it is ignored it means that the whole scheme has been little more than a wheeze, a fop to the idea of e-democracy that was never intended to do anything more than pretend people could use the internet to participate in their government. If that's the case then expect it to be replaced by a nice little website asking people to leave personal statements about how nice Tony is in real life.
But if it does work, well, this could be the start of something that really matters, a way of creating an instant and significant response to political proposals that provides a permanent record of real public opinion. Agree with the petition or not, it would be a significant step forward for the possibilities of net activism.
Hopefully the later will be true, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it. If over a million people marching can't stop a government policy, it'd be a surprise to see a million clicks manage it. Posted by Jim Valentine ( 9:50 PM ) Link to this post Comments[3]Fartlek Training here I come...
Here's the latest update from YouthNet marathon runner Donna:Well, things are going well. The run on Sunday went better than planned, ended up doing 11 miles in 2 hours so very pleased (although Monday was a very stiff day!). I also did a 6 mile run on Saturday so back on target. The weather helped considerably, it has to be said.
Talking of the weather, the freezing cold really got to me this week. Tuesday did a good 2 mile at the gym at lunch, and then only managed 3 miles on Tuesday night but I think that was partly due to the 11 miles on Sunday and my legs feeling like lead.
Thursday, again very good at the gym but after walking the dogs after work, it was looking very dangerous to actually run on the streets of Newark. Therefore it was decided I wouldn't (and reviewing the London Marathon website, the editor even said it was a bad idea). Friday I hit the treadmill again.
The weekend went ok. Lot of home stuff to deal with this week so mind not really on it, but feeling a lot more positive today (Monday). Started to do 8 miles quite comfortably and did a very good run on the treadmill yesterday, but the temperature is up again so it is back to the streets with Solo this evening.
Have great hopes for this week, with 9 weeks to go have to get some Fartlek training in. Here is to good weather, good running and a dog that doesn't want to pee too much!
Support Donna and YouthNet through her fundraising page.
Donna has raised £375 of her target.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 1:30 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]