I wonder about their effectiveness. I did just read that a TV show, Jericho, was given several more shows after viewers complained and sent nuts to the studio head.
Power to the people, or waste of time?
This one seems serious enough:
[quote]To: The Government of Ireland
This is a call to the Irish Government in bring in price controls on the price of alcohol sold in Irish Public Houses.
Since the introduction of the Euro publicans have ripped off Irish consumers and these same people are damaging the Irish economy with unnecessary price inflation.
We call on the Irish government oblige the publicans to apply for a price increase to their local authority, to ask the Competition Authority to investigate price fixing in this market, and to apply a €3 maximum price limit on any pint sold in a Irish Public House to begin with.
I have signed only one, to stop dogs being used as shark bait. They twitch a lot and that attracts the shark. I have no idea if it worked or not. But it was a no brainer for me.
You know the power of lobbying. You know that it exists in every decision taken by our deciders. So why not try to get people organised (thanks to this new internet tool) and make genuine people voice heard (who has no financial interest in whatever for ex)
We live at a global scale , internet petitions are useful.
Dogs and cats fur import in Europe would not have been banned if it were for a european level petition.
Who would care about Darfur if someone like Clooney didn t start a petition or action like Savedarfur.org ga6.org/campaign/savedarfurcoalition
yes glad some people do care enough to lobby thanks to petitions on internet.
Has a petition ever worked to change something? Serious question, because judging from the looks of the petitions I have read today, they are stupid for the most part.
A few years back, I worked for both Greenpeace and Amnesty (not at the same time). The general feeling then was that online petitions weren’t that effective, certainly not as effective as signatures on paper.
But even then, petitions were more of a public relations tool. The real work of change was lobbying efforts (mostly invisible to the public) and direct action (mostly about raising awareness, only occasionally used for disrupting something outright).
Letters sent to elected politicians from voters in the electorate is also effective, provided the electorate/politician in question is not in a safe seat.
I used to know the rough figures that compared both signatures on a petition and protesters on the street to the general population ie if 5000 people protest on the street, it’s equivalent to 50000 signatures, which is equivalent to the views of 500 000 voters (those figures are made up for sake of the example). I can’t remember what the actual numbers are, and even if I could, they may only be relevant to Australia.
[quote=“jdsmith”]I don’t think signing a petition does anything.
Has a petition ever worked to change something? Serious question, because judging from the looks of the petitions I have read today, they are stupid for the most part.[/quote]
Those which are stupid probably don t get many signatures.
cfimages
but was that as developped as now ? I mean petitions do reach tens of thousands of signatures depending on the subject.
can that not serve the lobbying process ?
i do sign petitions to serve the lobbying process to limit as soon as possible battery farm animals. If there were no one signing, would the lobbying worth something compared to the lobbying of farmers ?
I was attacked here for volunteering in Africa for a few weeks. The opinion was, it doens t bring any relief only to myself.
Same for petitions.
So should we only sit down and cross our arms waiting for someone to do a miracle ?
I don t get it . In what world are we living ?
No cause embraced ? how sad …really.
Ok this will be my last, as I have more worthy cause to defend than that one.
[quote=“SHARLEE”]In what world are we living ?
[/quote]A world where if any given issue doesn’t affect your own life, a sense of insignificance is the rule of thumb. Sad indeed.
[quote=“jdsmith”]I don’t think signing a petition does anything.
Has a petition ever worked to change something? Serious question. . . [/quote]
This appears to be one example.
[quote]Chef Jamie Oliver has welcomed the government’s extra £280m to tackle the school meals “crisis” in England.
At least 50p will be spent on each primary school lunch and 60p in secondaries. Some primaries currently spend as little as 37p on ingredients.
He said it would “make a difference to every kid in this country”, after delivering a petition to Tony Blair.
Mr Blair paid tribute to the chef, but said the government had been working on the issue for “quite a long time”. . .
Mr Oliver said the cash boost was “20 years too late”, but “the right sort of money”.
The row over the cost of dinners escalated after the chef’s Channel 4 show revealed how little some schools in south-east London spent on pupils’ meals.
His Feed Me Better campaign attracted 271,677 signatures of support.
The extra £280m announced by the government will be spent over the next three years. Some £220m will go on improving ingredients and targeting areas with the poorest services. . .[/quote] news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4391695.stm
I believe they also played a role in the removal of California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird from office and the release of Nelson Mandela. And here are some more petition success stories.
I think there is no question that petitions can make a difference. I think what we should look at is under what conditions do they make a difference.
cfimages made a great point. Petitions represent what people are willing to go out and vote over. What people care enough about to pick person A over person B for their representative. A petition that is too small, obscure, or not personally delivered will probably mean nothing.
