Petitions Update

My regular reader(s) will know that I've been a strong advocate of signing up to the e-petition against road pricing.

I've noticed that it's now become part of a bullshit chain email:

If you are a driver, this will interest you.
Sarah Kennedy was on about this
proposed car tax scheme on the radio,
apparently there is only one month
left
to register your objection to the
'Pay as you go' road tax.
The
petition
is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell
anybody
about it.
Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000
people had
signed it
so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop
them
introducing
it.
This is legit... from the 10 Downing Street's
website.
Once you've
given your details (you don't have to give your full
address,
just house
number and postcode will do), they will send you an
email with a
link in it.
Once you click on that link, you'll have signed
the petition.
Democracy in
action?
The government's proposal to
introduce road pricing will mean you
having to
purchase a tracking device
for your car and paying a monthly bill
to use it.
The tracking device
will cost about £200 and in a recent study by
the BBC,
the lowest monthly
bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a
delivery
driver. A non
working mother who used the car to take the kids to
school
paid £86 in
one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, you
will be tracked.
Somebody will
know where you are at all times. They will
also know how
fast you have been
going, so even if you accidentally creep
over a speed
limit in time you can
probably expect a Notice of Intended
Prosecution
with your monthly
bill.
If you care about our freedom and
stopping the
constant bashing of the car
driver, please sign the petition on
No 10's
new website (link below) and
pass this on to as many people as
possible.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

I don't know where this magic number of 750,000 has come from but it's utter bollocks. All the e-petition does is replace existing paper petitions and raise awareness of issues.

What we really need is an e-voting system where we can vote on the issues that matter and essentially reduce the decision making power of government.

It would be nice if the government did take notice of this enormous response though. Otherwise disgraceful incidents like this will no doubt occur more often. Especially as all three main political parties seem to be hideously out of touch with the public on this particular matter. If anyone from them happens to be reading this:

JUST TAX FUEL!

Everyone has to pay (rather than just those with trackers fitted - when the tracking system works properly)

Less beurocracy is required

The less you polute, the less you pay.