We the undersigned
News reaches us via Stef posting a press release in a useful place and telling us about it that the council are to set up an online petitions site, similar to the one that Prime Ministers have been condescendingly ignoring for a couple of years (although with some more functionality):
“It will provide an additional mechanism for people to have their say on issues – strengthening and broadening citizens’ access and participation in democratic decision-making.”
Maybe. I’m of the opinion that online petitions are so easy to “sign” that their worth is limited — as I said some months ago on the Birmingham Post blog:
“When it becomes too easy to complain it becomes too easy to dismiss … Political campaigns now have to ask you to write something in your own words when emailing, online petitions become nothing but sheer weight of numbers.”
But one thing they do do is alert the media to a cause to possibly champion, hopefully giving brummies a little more connection to the one thing politicians really care about — the press.
Maybe this will work much better at a local level than it has at a national level, looking forward to seeing it in action.
