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Petitions have long been a part of British political life. Anyone who wanted to change something would get a list of signatures from people who agreed to the idea and either send them to the government or deliver them personally to the Prime Minister's house in London. They are always accepted at the door by one of the PM's officials. What happens then? Nothing much, usually. But petitions have always been thought of as a useful way for those who govern to find out what the people really think. That's why the UK government launched its "e-petition" site in November 2006. Instead of physically collecting signatures, all anyone with an idea has to do now is to make a proposal on the government website, and anyone who supports the idea is free to add his or her signature. The petitions soon started to flow in. The idea was for the British people to express their constructive ideas. Many chose instead to express their sense of humor. One petitioner called on Tony Blair to "stop the Deputy Prime Minister eating so much". Another wanted to expel (驱逐) Scotland from the United Kingdom because Scottish football fans never support England in the World Cup. Other petitioners called on the Prime Minister to abolish the monarchy. Some wanted to give it more power. Some wanted to oppose the United States. Others wanted to leave the European Union. Some wanted to send more troops to Iraq and others wanted them all brought home. Some wanted to adopt the euro (欧元). Others wanted to keep the pound. Yet if some petitions are not serious, others present a direct challenge to government policy. A petition calling on the government to drop plans to charge drivers for using roads has already drawn around 1.8 million signatures. In response to that, a rival petition has been posted in support of road pricing. And that is also rapidly growing. There are about 60 million people in Britain, so it is understandable that the government wants to find out what people are thinking. But the problem with the e-petition site seems to be that the British people have about 70 million opinions, and want the Prime Minister to hear all of them. Perhaps he could start a petition asking everyone to just shut up for a while. |