NO NO NO
We dont want him to resign we want a general election, all that will happen if he resigns is a different labour stooge will take over and carry on much as before
Go, Brown, go!
It's easy to mock this government's bumbling attempts to get political mileage out of Web-2-point-twattery - fun, too. But we should also celebrate the brave new world of interactive communication our overlords have opened up. Although our esteemed leader still has no public email account, and his YouTube videos make children …
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Friday 24th April 2009 13:26 GMT Anonymous Coward
Schoolboy error?
Is the petition for the wrong thing? For the article to be correct, it should be for Gordon Brown to resign as Prime Minister, not for the Prime Minister to resign. That's a campaign for an infinite loop (which might have been the intention).
You know, like "No matter who you vote for the government always gets in"...
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Friday 24th April 2009 13:26 GMT Mike Wharton
Er, No.
Sorry John Oates,
I don't judge our governing bodies by their ability to use Twitter. I'm sure Obama's facebook is literally oozing with style and charisma but fortunately our leader is more interested in actually trying to run the country. Discussions of the success of this attempt aside - asking him to resign purely because he doesn't moonwalk onto stage Steve Jobs style while simultaneously blogging on his wordpress is simply daft.
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Friday 24th April 2009 13:26 GMT Tawakalna
I'm not signing this..
..as it doesn't call him a fat one-eyed incompetent Scottish idiot :)
nor does it suggest that Darling or Whacky Jacqui be put in stocks outside Parliament and pelted with rotten fruit and used condoms (or my share certificates which are now worthless)
however..
go on then I will.
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Friday 24th April 2009 13:26 GMT Robin
To Achieve...?
The Number10 petitions are almost up there with Facebook groups on the scale of faux-democracy tools.
Can you really imagine him calling to the wife and kids one morning:
"come on you lot, pack your bags - there's a facebook group AND a petition to get me out so we'd best leave."
Bahhh.
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Friday 24th April 2009 13:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
Nice to see some unbiased reporting for once...
Yes, so many newspapers these days feed us the myth that the recession is global, that people are out of work in places like the USA, Spain and Italy, but we all know the truth. It's only really the UK, and one slack-jawed red tie-wearing politico is to blame.
Now I'm no fan of what Labour has become -- and I've never, ever voted for them -- "recession master"? Come off it.
Now I'm not usually one for "Where's the IT angle", but remember that the defining characteristic of your readership is IT. You'll cut your readership in half if you toe any given political line. I'm starting to consider not reading....
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:02 GMT Adrian Taylor
for heavens sake Register get a grip, and dont let teenagers write articles
The Register is an IT based site, why the obvious political slant ?
If it was useful/unbiased political comment it wouldn't be so bad, but this sort of juvenile "get em all out" approach would be laughable in your average pub talk let alone in a "respected" publication like this one.
leave the political opinion out please, and if you can't then get level headed contributions rather than immature twaddle !
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:02 GMT Alex Osmond
@Ian Ferguson
"...can you name somebody in the current government better qualified and capable than Gordo to replace him?"
Or in the Tories? (That'll be the same party that still has the lovely John Redwood, alien of this parish, lurking in the ranks)
The only thing I can think of in the Tories favour is that they promise (ha, ha) to scrap the oppressive nosese that is the the National Identity Scheme (or 'Service', as the IPS now jokingly want us to call it). But other than that they're going to be the same as we had before.
Anyone care to say they think the LibDems holding the balance of power (highly unlikely outcome due to our anti-democratic electoral system) would be any better?
We're all doomed....
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:02 GMT Scott
Twitter
Does everyone thats not signing it have to tell everone, can't you put it on your twitter and not here?
(Heres a clue thats why the site is broken into diffrent catagorys, if you only want IT stories just read the IT stories its not hard when the TV news runs a fluff(y) story at the end of the program i turn my TV off because i'm a gruppy man, simply).
So all grumpy people i don't need to know your not signing a petition.
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Nice work
in alienating probably a third of your readership, El Reg. I don't vote for any of your corrupt English parties as I don't live there but even I can see that this must surely damage your reputation as an IT newletter. Who decided to bring partisan politics into tech news? This is boring and pointlessly argumentative.
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:02 GMT Ian
I can't sign this.
Sorry, but Brown is a massive failure, and people can see that. If it was asking for the Labour party as a whole to go then I'd go for it but removing just Brown is bad, why?
Because then we'll get Milliband and although he's just as atrocious, he has a lot of charisma and look how easily the British public have been fooled by Cameron's charisma.
No, better to just let them play out their time and keep shooting themselves in the foot so that we don't have to deal with them again any time in the next decade or so than risk them having a leader who is at least charismatic enough to win people over even if not good enough on the competence and policy front.
Let them keep a leader who is neither charismatic or competent, the short term pain will be worth it when it leaves Labour well and truly crushed to the point of no return.
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Why I Signed
I signed it, but why?
Is the government going to listen? Almost certainly not! It's clear they just take petitions as opportunities for more spin. Those who believe such petitions work will carry on using them, instead of taking more productive action. Those who believe such petitions are useless are more likely to resign themselves to the ineffectiveness of democratic participation. Either way, the government wins.
So why did I sign?
If I don't sign, simply because I expect such a petition to be useless, I'll be letting the government succeed in dissuading me from democratic participation. I'm not going to do that. But that doesn't mean I'm satisfied that signing it was enough.
Such petitions are better used as a way of spreading awareness about the issues such petitions relate to. A petition to decriminalise extreme porn might do nothing to persuade the government to repeal the extreme porn law, but it can still be used as a tool in wider efforts to raise public awareness of, and public opposition to, such laws. CAAN (www.caan.org.uk) have successfully used public protests for publicity purposes in similar ways, leaving the government unable to claim that there's no public opposition to such laws.
This petition is an opportunity to express opposition to this government and Gordon Brown in particular. But I don't mean simply by signing it. I mean by telling other people about it. "Look how fast people are signing it!" - you can't say that to your family, friends and colleagues if there isn't such a petition in the first place. It is in this kind of way that such petitions can increase public pressure on governments, not directly via the petitions themselves, but elsewhere. Just imagine journalists pressing the government on this petition and what it represents if it gets a million signatures.
Directly, these petitions are just about as useless as they could be. But indirectly, in other ways, they can be powerful, democratic tools.
I will play my small part in spreading the word.
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
To all the people who dislike the idea of this petition...
If you accept that we are in mess, that socialism is the way to get us out of it and that Labour is the best party to do it, then fine. That's an opinion and debate worth having.
If, on the other hand, you think Gordon Brown is a victim of circumstance, who did everything he could to the best of his ability and that no-one could have managed this country and its finances better for the past 12 years...
...then you simply haven't being paying attention.
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Friday 24th April 2009 15:05 GMT Ian
Ian
Great idea for a petition. Somewhat brave of No 10 to let it onto the site, too. But, to sign it I have to give me name, address, postcode, email address...
So let's try it and wait for the boys in blue with no shoulder IDs, using anti-terrorism laws no doubt, to come calling, put people on the DNA register, watch list for airports, etc.
Mine'll be the one with planted evidence in the pockets.
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT Maty
Of course there's a IT angle
It was that bit about asking Gordo to pick a window. I think he's ready to move his IT life from DOS 6 now. Possibly even windows 98, or maybe only windows 95.
Sadly though, if you want to get authoritarianism, illiberality and censorship out of our political culture you can't just change the politicians. You have to change the minds (using the term loosely) of those people who keep voting for them.
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT Chris Adams
FFS you lot
OK, this *barely* belongs in "Government" but what did you lot honestly think would be behind an article titled "Go, Brown, go!"? Fashion advice? Some Home Office declaration that, unless you paint your walls a dark colour you're a terrorist?
Sure, another online petition doomed to be ignored utterly that allows anyone with a browser and a couple of minutes spare on a Friday afternoon to vent a little, not news (well apart from the fact it's been approved at all)
However, as has been shown by some comments, there *are* people who read El Reg who fit the above category. Not everything is written just especially for you, my preciouses. It's Friday, relax!
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT Chris Gibson
Nutters
This is possibly the most laughable thread I've read on El Reg, and let's face it, there's some serious competition for that accolade.
I'm not sure which is more risible. The idea that anyone in government will, or should, pay any attention to a half-arsed online petition like this -- or the theory that the police are secretly monitoring it, and they'll be coming to get you if you sign!
You really think that you're striking a blow against the heart of government by adding your email address to this list? You really think that by doing so, you're sticking your head above the parapet in an action akin with standing in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square? You pathetic, pompous, self-important twats.
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT IanPotter
And tonight on Fox News!
More blatant right wing propaganda.
Since when did el Reg start employing trolls to write copy, that's what the comments are for surely.
As for the inevitable "who voted for him" question, his constituents did just like the rest of the MPs, ministers and denziens of the house. FFS what do these people want anyway, some sort of bloody phone in reality TV premier selection?! Make Cameron and whoever the LIbDem non-entity is eat wichery grubs while lying in a vat of leeches in some sort of demented bush tucker trial popularity contest just so the hard of thinking can say "oh I voted for him"
Actually on second thought.
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
Anyone who thinks politics doesn't affect IT
please leave now.
OK, now only us intelligent ones are left, doesn't the volume of debate here suggest that this is something the readership of El Reg is interested in discussing?
just a thought
Paris, because if she can make her mark in politics so can El Reg
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT amanfromMars
The Valid IT Political Angle.
In an Age whenever IT is so Immediately Powerful, it is a National/InterNetional Disgrace that the IT Illiterati should be Public Offices of Control and Abusing and Amusing themselves at everyone else's Expense and Blaming Everyone and Everything Else for their Crass Incompetence, Blind Arrogance and Pernicious Follies, which in another Time would have had the Ring Leaders Rightly Rotting in the Tower, and that the IT Cogniscenti should have their Heads so far up their Alimentary Canals to be unaware of their own Ignorant Display in Folly Support via their Superior Where's the IT, No Politics here Angle.
Grow up, Children ..... And Blame Media for News Programs they Produce/Dream up and a Thoroughly Corrupt Banking and Manipulative Markets System, if you can Think that far/deeply, and Pathetic Politicians are not your Fare .
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
@various
>If only
>By DJ Posted Friday 24th April 2009 12:48 GMT
>I still had a valid UK address.
>Who elected him in the first place?
Expats can vote, just watch it when you return to UK
>Resign? I want him forcibly ejected from the country
>By SuperTim Posted Friday 24th April 2009 12:54 GMT
Nope, we dont want him , or Blair, or wj etc (in Narnia that is, where I live!!)
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
re: To all the people who dislike the idea of this petition...
I'm sorry, but did you just use the words "socialism" and "Labour" in the same sentence?
To everyone else, I think el reg was just using this particular example (of the government hosting an online petition against itself) as an object lesson in how important opinions expressed online really are.
Ooops. I walked into that one didn't I?
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Friday 24th April 2009 21:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Ed
Obviously not a long term visitor of the Reg then or very aware that technology covers the internet too.
If the petition is online that more than satisfies the non-existent requirement of this website to make all stories tech-related.
For further stewing, exasperation and apoplexy, why not check out the Odds and Sods section.
I'll admit this isn't of the quality usually required.
No gay flamingos stealing baby flamingos from straight flamingos - proving gay chaps and lasses will steal our babies if we allow them to marry. No squirrels plaguing the neighbourhoods of London hopped up on crack. Not even a single case of a yoof trying to sell pot in a police station.
But nonetheless it is pretty damn funny, which is usually more relevant to this site than some boring shit about server virtualisation or yawning over who's processor scores higher on a few benchmarks.
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Saturday 25th April 2009 10:56 GMT Anonymous Coward
To further whet your appetite
Q: What Party in the UK is closest to saying: We the people, for the people?
Q: What Party in the UK is closest to saying: We the wealthy for the wealthy?
Q: What Party in the UK has tried its utmost to benefit the people by funds raised from the people?
Q: What Party in the UK has tried its utmost to benefit its own kind by funds raised from the people?
My preference is: Derog a Tory.
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Saturday 25th April 2009 11:15 GMT Ian
Wait.... did I just read correctly?
There are still people defending Labour?? What?? I didn't realise our country was plagued by a level of idiocy quite so severe. I mean, I knew things were bad - after all, Labour got in in the last election post Iraq invasion but I didn't know things were quite this bad in that 4 years of severe governmental raping of this country and it's citizens and they're still getting support.
If people are still defending Labour now, I can only think that our country is in terminal decline and there's possibly no hope to prevent that because a noticable percentage of our population are stupid enough to support a party that has literally turned our country from a top 5 world leader by most important measures into a mid-30s and falling state.
Still, I suppose about 30% of Americans supported Bush to the end so maybe every country has a disturbingly high percentage of painfully stupid people and at least as politicians go, they have someone at least relatively competent now, so perhaps there is some hope.
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Saturday 25th April 2009 11:15 GMT Anonymous Coward
Don't be daft
Tory speak:
Us = like minded individuals with commonality in schooling and upbringing
People = prey. People have, from time to time, assets. We (that is the Us mentioned above) will prey upon people to ensure that they are divesting from their assets. Our greed is far, far, far more important than their need.
Society = never understood this one. It seems to be something but it costs money. And in doing so it diverts income from Us to others and that cannot be tolerated for a single moment.
Boom & bust = a natural sequence of events in which "people" are encouraged to build assets and we will divest "people" of those assets whenever we deem important so to do. This present *anking sector crisis is a classical example of Tory boom & bust.
Labour speak:
We have decided to fund ... (ok lads, get in there, grab it quickly, efficiently and ruthlessly because this cash stream will stop sometime but until it does restructure and do what you will to grab it before it goes.)
Go Gordy go?
Yes, for sure. More years at the helm rebuilding the UK in a more democratic (don't get me started on that one. House of Lords = house of vested interest with nothing at all to do with notions of democracy, people or society but everything to do with vested interest or vested interest by proxy (it depends upon how much you want to pay)
Tory party = loose amalgam of Tory associates banded together by Us to further limit threats from Commoners and extend influence from Lords directly into the Commons)
Go Gordy Go = 4 more years!
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Saturday 25th April 2009 11:15 GMT mittfh
...and be replaced by who?
Sure The Red Party have mucked up the country, but then again, so did The Blue Party when they were in power. Besides which, until the recession hit, The Blue Party were all in favour of increased deregulation for banks. Oops. Then they moaned at the government's life support package. They still like moaning about Welfare to Work schemes that encourage the long term unemployed to undertake further training or take up subsidised three month work trials.
Now they seem to have returned to their mantra of tax cuts. Which is strange since the local councils they run like moaning about the decreasing amount of money they're getting from central government.
Ideally The Red Party could do with one term in opposition, to take a break, regroup and reinvigorate their policies. However, give The Blue Party too much free reign and they'll make things even worse (they may want to protect "front line" jobs, but what about all the background staff that handle all the admin, IT, finance etc.?)
So when the election comes, a hung parliament or narrow majority to The Blue Party - perhaps coupled with a very stormy election day to make turnout abysmal...
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Saturday 25th April 2009 11:16 GMT Christopher Rogers
Dry your eyes
If you don't wanna read political comment on el Reg, then don't click on the headlines! I couldn't give a monkeys about "big iron" datacentres, so i don't click on the links to stories about them. Thats the beauty of point and click interfaces, you have control over what appears on screen. Its not like ceefax nightscreen scrolling on BBC2.
Moaners.
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Saturday 25th April 2009 23:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Anyone who thinks politics doesn't affect IT
@AC:
"Anyone who thinks politics doesn't affect IT
...
please leave now."
Politics affects IT, yes. But the problem with this article is that it doesn't present any link. The "some link, somewhere" doesn't cut it. Why should we want Brown to resign?
Reg readers come to the Reg because they generally make a point, rather than engaging in the massive politician-press-public circle jerk and trying to encourage mindless, irrational groupthink. "Follow the crowd! Everyone else is evil wrong little (insert name of chosen ethno-socio-religious "inferior" grouping here)s.
While I can respect someone who says I'm wrong, I will only do so if he presents an argument as to WHY I'm wrong.
When someone jumps up and down screaming "Me want! Me want!" I will show my disapproval, just as I would to any other petulant child.
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Monday 27th April 2009 09:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
Fools and history
As in, those who don't learn from it just repeat it.
If the Tories are really that bad, how come the last two Labour governments have inherited healthy economies only to fsck them up as soon as they apply "traditional" Labour values?
Our previous Chancellor - the one who said he'd ended 'Boom and Bust' - started off by continuing the /previous/ mob's fiscal policies and things kept getting better. Then came his infamous "Aren't I wonderful" speech where he tried to convince the country he'd saved us from ever being poor again, and he went back to his Old Labour roots and things started going downhill again (house prices stagnated, unemployment up, taxes up, stealth taxes like the worthless Home Information Packs and regular fuel price increases, and so on).
Then came the start of the global collapse - AFTER Brown had started to ruin us again - but there are still a large number of people who cannot see this - they insist on blaming the Tories for Brown's mess when the Tories actually got us out of the mess left by the /last/ Labour government, led by James Callaghan. And now we have Alistair Darling telling us that we'll be out of this Recession by the end of 2010.
I doubt it, since we won't have a General Election until probably mid-2010 (and only then if they don't manage to use the Parliament Act to force through a change in the law - after all, who's going to protest when ZaNew Labour control the police?) and it will take the Tories another few years to recover from the shattered economy inherited from this bunch of incompetants.
So to all you who keep saying "Tories are worse", think on this - if the Tories are really as bad as you believe, how did Labour inherit such a healthy economy when they got in? And if they are right about us being the healthies economy in Europe, why are our Ministers the only ones mentioning even the merest possibility of going cap-in-hand to the IMF?
I'm over 25, out-of-work and a home-owner and car driver. The budget has screwed me over yet again. How am I better off under Labour?
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Monday 27th April 2009 09:08 GMT Jimmy
Science and Technology corrupted.
El Reg has never been a narrow exclusion zone where only the nuts and bolts of electronic technology are up for discussion, and thank goodness for that. It would be completely disingenuous to ignore the wider social implications of the business we are engaged in.
As we have discovered to our cost in the last decade, having your head up your ass is not the optimum configuration for the maintenance of a fair and just society. Although this is the posture that our government and its commercial friends very much hopes we will continue to adopt.
So I welcome the fact that El Reg continues to make available a space where the technically competent are able to provide informed commentary on the abuses of our technology by politicians and businesses.Viva El Reg!
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Monday 27th April 2009 09:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: And tonight on Fox News!
IanPotter writes, "More blatant right wing propaganda."
More tired "left wing" vs. "right wing" labelling. Is Labour really "left wing" in any sense any more? Or is "right wing" just a badly chosen euphemism for "anti-government", one step below "unpatriotic"?
"As for the inevitable "who voted for him" question, his constituents did just like the rest of the MPs, ministers and denziens of the house. FFS what do these people want anyway, some sort of bloody phone in reality TV premier selection?"
How about proper representation? A bit like in the European Parliament elections which, contrary to the beliefs of the most ardent nationalists amongst the Britards, probably have more democratic influence than getting your local incumbent elected once again and having him/her waffle on in the Commons while not daring to cross the Whip. And that's really saying something given that the EU is one of the most undemocratic policy fixing organisations in the "free world".
I didn't vote for Brown or Blair. But then, as I note above, in the "first past the post" system that so stimulates the average politicised Britard, my vote counts for virtually nothing in the archaic British parliamentary system. Even if the local MP took a dump in front of the assembled masses on St George's Day, all the loyalists and apologists would still insist that he's such a nice man and vote Labour anyway.
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Monday 27th April 2009 09:08 GMT Kate
Stop and think
Just a warning from Australia. We finally got rid of that hated little man, John Howard, to the point where he not only lost the Election, but his seat as well, only the second time in Aussie history for that. So we welcomed the bright, shiny new government only to discover that their plans for us included a Chinese/Iranian style Internet censorship plan to take us back to our 1950's style isolation! So by all means sign the petition for Brown (and Wacky) to pick a window, but be careful about who (or what) replaces him.
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Monday 27th April 2009 09:37 GMT peter ashworth
another No 10 petition ...... please pass around
whilst we are on the subject of getting No 10 petitions up and running i have just had one approved myself, this concerning the actions of the credit card companies who seem fully intent on going against everyone who is trying their best to deal with the credit crunch in a fair way (even if they have been coerced by the govt)
please check out, and sign if you agree, this one -
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/creditcardripoff/
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
