That E-Petitions website seems like a good idea on the surface, but since when does government ever listen to the people unless we force it to?

We can ask until we're blue in the face, but no government has ever cared what the people thought except when it comes to staying in power, and then it's nothing but a series of token gestures, hot air and spin, accompanied by a "choice" that isn't. It makes no difference who you vote for - the government always wins, and the apparatus of power and corruption remains virtually unchanged. It's the entire system that needs changing, not just small aspects of it.

I'd like to petition all governments to stop existing so local communities can organise themselves on the principles of mutual aid, co-operation, non-hierarchy and respect for the planet. But you can bet your arse that even if everyone in the whole world signed, those in power would make use of their power to ignore us, or make use of the mass media to tell us the opposite, or maybe even just pay a bunch of goons (sorry, I mean the military and police, though it's not like there's any difference) to beat us up and kill enough of us that the rest back down for fear of their lives.

This is the way of the world under their system, and it's not changing until we rise up and smash it.

So by all means petition the bastards, but don't hold your breath. When it comes to making necessary changes, solidarity and direct action is the only way forward (and I don't mean marching around waving placards either, since that's also far too easily ignored, suppressed or pacified with lies).

Ultimately the E-Petitions website is just another way of the state reinforcing the illusion that you have any say in the way the country is run, when you don't (unless you have serious dough). Time for a reality check, because as long as you keep asking politicians for things, you might as well just pin your hopes on a "lucky" rabbit's foot.

A million pensioners rioting... now that'd be a sight! (I'd love to see them try to put the spin on that one...)

convert zimmerframes into shotguns

When you feel helpless then I'm sure that writing to an MP feels like you are doing something.

MP's could not care less about the electorate 'coz they know that if you buy into their democracy then you have no choice - it's one group of people who couldn't give a shit compared with another group of people who only care about themselves - Some 4king choice.