Yesterday I was drawn to the Downing Street website. A website that allows you to read all about the current Labour government, but more interestingly it allows you to submit petitions and raise subjects of importance right under the noses of the country’s management. I’m usually of the opinion that petitions are generally useless, especially on a national scale. They’re not bad on a local level for raising concern about issues that can lead to local councils prioritising certain things… but unless there’s a petition with a few million signatures, how can it possibly be any use on a national level?
HOWEVER, some of them do make for interesting reading.
One petition that I am in full support of is the biggest on the Downing Street website, it is to ensure that inheritance tax is scrapped in this year’s budget. 110,358 people have put their signatures on this petition so far. That’s quite impressive, but for such a monumental issue like inheritance tax I fear it will do very little. It is a disgusting form of taxation, forcing greiving families into more distress and suffering. People who have paid tax their whole lives (at the moment 40% of whatever they earn) are then taxed on whatever they have left when they pass on - including property and belongings. That is effectively robbing their graves. I can’t believe the taxation was ever allowed in the first place, and urge everyone to sign this petition.
The next petition that caught my eye has just over half the amount of signatures (54,000) and is against the restrictions on photography in public places. As a keen yet highly unskilled photographer I wasn’t aware that the government were pushing for ID cards to be a requirement for allowing photographers to operate in public places. Recently I have noticed a few signs up in Sunderland at swimming pools and places like that opposing to photography, which I can agree with, but the moves suggest an overall paranoia and suspicion to people who either enjoy or work with cameras.
Despite being a Manchester United fan, I have to agree that Liverpool’s ex-manager Bob Paisley deserves to be posthumously awarded a knighthood. This petition was the one that brought me to the downing street website in the first place, and as much as it hurts for a United fan to say it he’s the reason Liverpool are the most successful English club ever, so he deserves to be recognised. Paisley won the European Cup three times and the domestic league six out of nine years, an incredible feat. Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been knighted, has won the European Cup only once, which tells you something about how difficult it must be. Paisley deserves to be knighted and recognised as an incredible figure in the history of British football, and I hope this petition will go some way to realising that.
As someone who is largely against religion, I find it interesting that there is a petition asking to abolish all faith schools to prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology. It is a sensible move as it would encourage children to choose their own relgious or philosophical beliefs, but it is such a monumental move that I fear will never ever come close to being backed. Our governments’s openness to other cultures, races and overly politically correct attitude suggest that we are at a place where religious education should be about more than just christianity (which is all it was at my school). Kids are taught as soon as they enter reception and the first years of learning about Jesus and basic christianity, effectively pushing them into that religion before they’re of a state of mind where they can accept or reject it. I wouldn’t go as far as to say they’re brainwashed by the curriculum, but children should be raised AND THEN choose their religion rather than raised with a religion already chosen for them. Kids need to know more views on religion and the world than just what the Church of England or what christians think.
I’m surprised that a petition to scrap all existing planned tolls, road pricing and congestion charging has only received 10,500 votes. Every driver I have ever spoke to about the government’s handling of traffic and travel thinks that road users pay way more than we should - on top of road tax and insurance, we’re now being charged to drive into busy, ‘congested’ areas and now we could be charged per mile of driving. If more taxpayers money was put back into building better roads and bypasses, plus improvements in urban areas, rather than trivial spending on ‘mega-mosques’ (see below) then we wouldn’t need to be paying all these extra burdens.
I have also added my name to a petition which supports the abolishment of plans to build a £100 million mega mosque. Unlike the petition leader, who says that “we the christian population of this great country of England” want it scrapped as it will only “cause terrible violence and suffering”, I simply feel that £100 million is an outrageous amount to spend on one building. With so many complaints about the road taxation, the NHS, money in education and all sorts - why the hell do the government see it fit to spend a tenth of a billion pounds on a ‘mega’ mosque. It’s not necessary or imperative, which is what the budget should focus on.
And finally, there is a petition to extend the London Underground to Tottenham Football Club. It allows Tottenham to expand their White Hart Lane ground, but will also allow them to benefit the local area. Makes sense to me that a club as big as Tottenham, with dozens of thousands of fans each weekend, should have a safe and direct way to frequent to the ground.
For every petition there is usually a counter-petition, or a different one on a similar subject. UK residents will definitely find something that they’ll feel strongly about in there. I don’t think that my signature, or the petition in general, will make much difference. But the old adage that if everyone made their voice heard then we’d have more say in what happens would ring true with these petitions. They make for interesting, insightful reading anyway - I had no idea that there restrictions for public photography were on the way in, and I wasn’t aware of East London’s mega mosque costing a whopping £100 million. You can read the rest of the open petitions here.
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