Just as a matter of interest, have any of the Downing Street petitions ever been acted on and if so how many have gone in favour of the Great British public? Or do they just get ignored and nothing is ever done?

sherbert wrote on Nov 14^th, 2007 at 3:20pm:


A good question.  I think the answer is Yes in a few cases.    The PM's website states that all petitions which gain 100 votes or more will receive a reply.    In practice some seem to be ignored but most popular petitions do receive a Government Response.   The Responses are published on the website with each petition and most closed Petitions have their Response.   A few live petitions get a Response before their end date (e.g. "Allow the Red Arrows to fly at the 2012 Olympics" which still has 10 months to run), as you can see, and I have seen a few which attracted a Response within 2 days of starting.    

It would be a matter of opinion whether, or to what extent, some Responses indicate that Government policy was influenced by a petition.

In one notable case a petition was publicised by this website  regarding NGN numbers : ---
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/saynoto0870/
and initially was ignored by the Gov't despite gaining over 43000 votes.    Following correspondence with the PM about this snub to 43000 people a Government Response was posted, which became heavily criticised.   This is still the subject of correspondence with 10 Downing Street and, just maybe, has had and will have significant influence on Government action and policy.

My view is that it is up to the initiators and supporters of a petition to try and make something happen.    If we don't like the Response then we should follow it up with positive and purposeful arguments.   We may or may not get some results, but at least we can try.

sherbert wrote on Nov 16^th, 2007 at 9:06am:
Many of us are involved in this campaign because we seek for something to actually happen, and believe that we could succeed. We are not looking for some modest justification for a sense of dissatisfaction in having failed. These efforts, often unseen, are proving to be effective, although there is still some way to go. The petition has a place in this.

sherbert wrote on Nov 16^th, 2007 at 9:06am:
Inertia is generally a far more likely reason for inaction on any point than hidden interests. The campaign is supported by a sizeable, and growing, list of MPs.

The financial interest of concern here is not of any personal nature, it is the fact that payments by patients are used to avoid spending from taxpayer-funded budgets.

David

tjfs wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2007 at 6:52pm:


What area is that?

The point that I made in my first post is that this is now being taken up by hospital services, certainly in the mental health field and if the lid is not put on it, likely to be taken up by many more health services than just gp surgeries.

For those interested, there is a letter in my local paper about this.  It can be accessed at www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk and scroll down to post bag.  My concern is that many of the people most affected namely people on a pension are unlikely to be users of the web and may not be able to sign the petition.

21000.

Just over three weeks to go and there are now 25,139 signatures.