E-Petitions "do not have the same weight as paper petitions"... "Public take-up has been slow?"

I wonder what could have given people that idea, maybe it was the 3 million or so who signed up to the Road Charging E-Petition only to receive a lovely email response from Tony Blair telling everyone "I am right you are wrong and road charging is one of the tools we will have to use to fight congestion". I guess that kind of made the system totally pointless in many people's eyes when a few million signatures on a petition larger than any paper one gets fobbed off by the PM of the day.

And to think some people wonder why we are so apathetic about democracy and politics in this country...

I'll get my coat.

I really like the gov' e-petitions, but refuse to sign one until I can submit my name, address, etc. via an https connection.

(saying that, this form (with email+password) doesn't use any kind of https - tut tut !!)

I wonder at what point our great and glorious leaders[1] connect the dots and use the e-petition concept as another way to plug the dismal ID cards scheme ... After all, the ID card serial number will be unique, so multiple voting could be prevented.

Mind you, the entrepreneurial amongst us will simply set up lobbying consultancies, where we will "buy" peoples votes on an e-petition, and submit blocks of votes en-masse.

Myself I'd sell my e-petition vote in a flash, a tenner a signature. It's not as if it's going to change anything is it .... (speaking of things not changing, that's the Paris Hilton angle)

[1]For our US friends, that's irony. I consider our present incompetents ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Humbents to be neither great nor glorious.

...isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

I'll get my coat.

"I really like the gov' e-petitions, but refuse to sign one until I can submit my name, address, etc. via an https connection."

Right, except it matters not. They'll print it, and drop it in the post. No, really, they will. The post isn't HTTPS'd so your details are still anyones. I'd rather take the risk of middleman HTTP intervention than ask for HTTPS to offer false hope of security.

"I wonder what could have given people that idea, maybe it was the 3 million or so who signed up to the Road Charging E-Petition only to receive a lovely email response from Tony Blair telling everyone "I am right you are wrong and road charging is one of the tools we will have to use to fight congestion"

Hmmm, sounds incredibly similar to "I don't care how many of you take to the streets in protest, we will start an illegal war based on no evidence what so ever and that's that, because I'm the boss and I say so".

/me suggests that the entire IT industry votes for the Monster Raving Loonies at the next general election - Dave Cameron thinks we wnat change - let's show him how much change he can have! :oP

(Paris - because, well, just because alright?)

..elephants.

E-voting could be an earner for those rather capable folks over in Russia.

Drop a little package on a Bot-farm for which ever party you want to win or tip the balance in another direction.

The package only has to use existing data from the machines - stuff like birthdates and N.I. numbers. Could even check for incoming voting mail or make a request.

Judging by the amount of crap mail that gets filtered out from my account there's plenty of available 'voters'.

Excellent idea, direct route to the people.

Unfortunately, like all Government IT projects, it was doomed to failure. Voters ? who wants to listen to them, they only matter every few years when it is time to be re elected.

Sadly, the ONLY language this government and its predecessors ever understood was riots. Riots are a much more effective means of changing government policy, despite the assertions to the contrary uttered at the time.

For anonymous cowards, I did vote Monster Raving Looney in the Bootle by election where my vote helped remove Lord David Owen from politics. I shall be voting Monster Raving Looney again, if only you would really join me .....

Speaking as someone who started a petition which was signed by over one thousand, eight hundred people, then got a weaselly response from the Prime Minister's Office which basically completely ignored what the petition was saying, I have no doubt that this "consultation" is also going to be an utter waste of time and energy.

This Government has *NO* interest in listening to the people who elected them (let alone the large proportion of the electorate who *didn't* vote for them!) but systems like this work wonderfully for diverting people from writing to their MPs which may actually get some response!