Railway E-Petition on Number 10 Web Site

[whole diary]

[FlyingDutchman]

Hi

I Just wonder what people thought about putting petition's on the number 10 web site
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk

Guy

[moonrakerz]

I did add my name to a petition once. I got a "personal" acknowledgement from Number 10.

However, this was somewhat spoilt by my e-mail client (Thunderbird) which headed the e-mail with "Thunderbird thinks this e-mail may be junk" in large red letters !
Thunderbird may be far more intelligent than I ever gave it credit for   

[grahame]

Hi

I Just wonder what people thought about putting petition's on the number 10 web site
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk

Guy

A useful tool as part of a campaign ... you need to plan carefully, spread the word and use that very act of spreading the word as a part oy your campaign.   I'm not sure how many petitions result in the 'formal' answer being more than just a regurgitated standard answer that the campaigners have probably already got from elsewhere.

I was the 'headline' name on an early online petition - in its day, it had more signatures than any previous domestic public transport issue ... have a look:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/wessextrains/

Further comment - critically important for it to be as crystal clear as possible what you're asking for and in my view that must be plausible / practical.  Don't ask for a new franchise just for your line - you're unlikely to get a major government change 'just' for a stopping service from Exeter to Taunton.   Make it attractive for people to sign, use the press and local radio ... and carefully choose your timescale too.

I think you've asked "is it worth doing" and I have answered more along the lines of "here are some things to consider if you give it a go ..." . Hope that helps. Feel free to ask more about how we did it, outcomes, etc.

[Btline]

Ok, to be honest.... although:

*I've created one myself; and,
*I've signed quite a few....

... they are an utter waste of time. Ok, if you get a million signatures (like the road pricing one) they'll actually read it. But other than that, they just put up a response which is patronising, and full of hot air with "facts" that you probably already know. My advice? Don't waste your time unless you can be sure lots of people will sign it. Even then, don't expect anything huge. It could tip any balance towards your side of an argument, but it'll only add ounces, not pounds!

[matt473]

As Graham has stated, petitions are a useful tool. They should be used near the end of a campaign to hsow there are numbers to support a proposal. A petition on it's own is useless as i can easily be brushed aside but a petition with a well thought out propsoal and supposrt from local autorities and organisations such as rail re-opening for example gives the petition meaning and makes it useful.

[FlyingDutchman]

I have done several railway petition on the web site.

[Brucey]

... they are an utter waste of time.

Agreed.

Here is one of my favourites (I'll give a brief outline of the topic too as it isn't railway related):

Student loans after 1998 have always had interest charged at the rate of the previous March's Retail Price Index (RPI^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context))) (not a Revenue Protection Inspector, I hasten to add!)
There was a petition in 2007 asking for loans to follow the Consumer Price Index
This was part of the government's response:

Viewed over a period of several years, the student loan interest rate will be equivalent to the rate of inflation; but with a time lag. To ensure that this remains the case we need to use the same measure of inflation consistently over time.

In 2008/2009, the government decided they would lower the interest rate to follow the average of 5 bank's base rates + 1%.  This was so that the Consumer Credit Act wouldn't apply to the loans (and therefore they wouldn't need to  be regulated by the FSA or have complaints dealt with by the Financial Ombudsman).
March's RPI was -0.4% so the interest rate was fixed at 0%, contrary to what was in the petition above.
So a new petition was created.
Government's response:

There are two options for establishing the interest rate for income contingent repayment (ICR) loans.  The first is to use Retail Prices Index (RPI), or the bank base rate, whichever is lower . There is also a low interest cap linked to that option, which means that the loan interest rate can be cut in-year, when the base rate plus 1% across a group of banks, is lower than RPI, as happened in December 2008 for the first time.  The second option is for the Secretary of State not to set an interest rate. The Government decided not to apply an interest rate for the academic year commencing 1 September 2009, which effectively means the rate will be 0%.

Hang on a minute, that wasn't what they were saying back in 2007.

Just goes to show that the government take no notice of these petitions.