unoriginalname38 – the blog of Dave Cole

Petitions

As of 23:19 on 15th January, fully 1,498,130 people have signed the petition against the introduction of road pricing. If I had more time, I would like to check how many pundits are currently saying that the PM should take note who did not say the same when lots of people marched against the Iraq war in London on February 15th, 2003. I'm not saying that there are many, or even any, but I'd like to know. Estimates of numbers range from 750,000 on behalf of the Metropolitan Police to 2,000,000 on behalf of the organisers but it was lots of people that took more time than it takes to fill in a petition, and the government took not a blind bit of notice.

There is a single, large problem with the petition as worded: it talks about vehicle tracking. It would be possible to set up a system, similar to the C-charge, whereby cameras picked up when a car entered a city, issued the appropriate charge to the registered driver (not a penalty) and the registered driver would be responsible for their car but wouldn't have to say who was driving it. There is no more of a civil liberties issue there than banks knowing where an ATM card is used or telephone companies knowing in which area a mobile 'phone was used.

I know not many people read this blog, but would those that to comment and answer this: anyone up for organising a petition that reads "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to introduce the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy"?

I broadly agree with David Osler on this one.

xD.

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