Comments on: A few words on the Guardian

By: duncan

duncan — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:03:28 +0000

Charles, you should read some of the publications and/or talk to the ITC, who built the Scottish Parliament e-Petitions system:
http://itc.napier.ac.uk/ITC/publications.asp

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:16:03 +0000

Tom – if there are factual points you think need correction (like the “insider” phrase) then you should email reader@guardian.co.uk – seriously: then you can describe how you think it should be.

On the petitions thing, interesting point. I’ve got someone working on a piece about whether online petitions (of all stripes) ever achieve *anything*. It’s quite hard to find evidence in its favour, though examples are very welcome.

By: Daniel Cecil

Daniel Cecil — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:30:51 +0000

I find the Guardian is always quite pessimistic about how efficacious social protest is. 8.9 million signatures, even to the most embittered campaigner is respectable, and surely the Downing street boys, twisting their ties around their fingers about their every move, will sit up and take notice when there is that kind of presence on the web.

A petition has always had invisible results, but it does affect policy. Did Amnesty Internationals petition about the 45 day holding period influence the rejection of that particular bill? Let’s keep up some sort of faith …

By: Simon Dickson

Simon Dickson — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:27:50 +0000

Tom, I think you and I know fine well that the Petitions site has had a significant impact, regardless of what the Guardian says. It’s a cultural challenge, not just to No10, but to the whole of government. Taking the obvious example, would road taxing have been ditched without the online petition? Maybe, maybe not. But the online service did its bit, unquestionably.

The part about admitting its effect is more tricky. Almost by definition, a petition is telling government ‘you’re wrong’: either something it’s done, or something it hasn’t done. Governments (of any colour) don’t have a habit of holding their hands up.

Gordon Brown’s recruitment of ‘goats’ does show some willingness to accept that outsiders might know better. So does ShowUsABetterWay. These are small steps, which have yet to destroy the adversarial political culture, but at least they are steps in the right direction.