Go, Brown, go!

And there was me thinking...

... that this was a science and technology news site, not a place for political crap like this.

What's the news story here? Somebody has got a petition published - whoopty fuckin' do!

Too late.

It's gone beyond that.

More appropriate for today's world would be: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to fill his pockets with housebricks and jump off Westminster Bridge."

65 as I went there

and now 66.

I will sign it, but...

...can you name somebody in the current government better qualified and capable than Gordo to replace him?

I'd rather petition the whole government to resign :)

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"...

Just a shame...

it'll be October before it closes.

And a cold day in Satan's place before Paw Broon pays any attention to it.

Much like Jacqui Smith.

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.

I for one...

...have signed.

Now where's the shot gun in case he refuses?

So now we know your true colours..

I shall be paying much less attention to your opinions.

Just the facts, man.. or you'll be going the way of that guy on /. who I screened out so long ago I can't even remember his name.

Signed

Get him out, get them all out.

Petitions

Did I miss the bit when the Register turned into a political paper? That's two stories today where the main thrust has been primarily political. Why, as a reg reader, should I necessarily want Gordon Brown to resign?

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.

If only

I still had a valid UK address.

Who elected him in the first place?

Resign? I want him forcibly ejected from the country

He has destroyed us from within with his frivolous fiscal policies. The xxx-eyed xxxxxxx Idiot!

Wait.... i think i hear the Met outside..... the familiar clonk of Hippy on Baton......

Great work

Great work that man, now we all need to sign to ensure it doesn't slip away quietly.

Oh and maybe work contacting some other news outlets, although being the web they may not have that internet thingymabobby yet.

Ah Hell yeah

Article - forward to .... Everyone in my email address book

:-)

29 October 2009

It appears that there's a six-month deadline for this petition. Gordon should be grateful if he gets that far...

Well that's useful

Me, I'm waiting for the General election when we can ensure that Gordo and the rest of his stinking cabal gets a turn on the opposition benches. Anyone signing up to this petiton is gonna get pulled by the fuzz in the near future. Allegedly.

Job jobbed

That is all.

Seriously?

I'm not sure what to be more concerned about.

El Reg reporting utter garbage or it's readers suggesting there's a better replacement out there? David Cameron? Don't make me laugh.

forget the IT angle

I can't see the interesting angle either..... is the Reg involved in a Tory-driven smearing campaign? I thought only Labour used such techniques...

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 !

best of a bad bunch

I'd rather take some mildly incompetent governance than take any action that might give the slightest chance for another Tory government to cast its filthy shadow over this nation. Boris on a national scale, no thanks.

@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....

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.

Hmmm

Not the kind of thing I come to El Reg for, chaps. Very poor show. Get back to the Playmobil stuff post haste.

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.

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.

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.

Can we just clear this up?

Has El Reg officially thrown its support behind Cameron for the next general election? Will it be turning its banner blue?

Just wanted to check what is going on.

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.

Keep the political crap off El Reg please

If I want a Daily Mail editorial, I'll buy the Daily Mail.

David Miliband

Has anyone else noticed David Miliband signed this petition??