‘Revoke Article 50’ petition

Recently the ‘Revoke Article 50’ petition has been doing the rounds on social media and filling my inbox sent from well-meaning friends and contacts.

I will make it clear that I have signed it, not that I believe it will be meaningful only to share this common solidarity with likewise minds.

I do consider its noble in theory (my thoughts as I am a remainer) but in practice it is a waste of time and sharing it on social media posts are akin in my opinion to sharing a meme and voicing your political stance but by all means continue, it does signal how around half the population feel and a badge of purpose for those who share it, I certainly don’t wish to appear as knocking it, only questioning what it will truly achieve.

Signatures on this petition appear to have come from all over the world, from destinations such as  North Korea, China and ..err…the fantastic  land of Disney , eminent signatories  such as Micky Mouse and Donald, also equally impressively Kim Jong-un, also I hear that Rees-Mogg has signed it 6000 times (obviously not the real Rees-Mogg)

 It is also vulnerable to duplicated signatures through multiple email addresses and the use of “BOTS” as (at least when I signed it) no Captcha Verification (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to ensure all respondents are genuine breathing humans.

Because of these reasons this online petition is really just a very loose online survey open to manipulation and does not follow the proper rules of polling methodologies.

The petition’s signatories do geographically match that of the 2016 vote to remain (if you forget about Kim Jong-Un and co) so it does reflect that vote but not much else.

As I often point out, I am and continue to be a Remainer, I wish to stay in Europe as I do believe we are better together but I (we) must accept there has been a democratic vote  (I have previously posted the bad side of democracy and this I feel is an example also for such a change in constitution I also believe there should be a set majority for it to rule but despite what I think about democracy this vote followed the rules)   but now this petition and all matters related with appear to be an attempt to  tell a great number of people of this country that their vote does not matter, and that by extension, neither do they.

On the positive side it is very impressive that a tenth of the eligible electorate of the country has signed it (well if we disregard the obvious fakes) and that it is the most popular in the history of the Commons Petitions Committee. It does display the taste as if there was another vote, a so-called “peoples vote” then although it does stick up two fingers at democracy, I for one would certainly be happier and hope the outcome would be different …but then there is no guarantees that it would unfortunately.