Off Topic - If you drive a car in the UK then read this!

[Mister Gradenko]

There are only 13 days left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax - which closes to petitions on the 20th February 2007.

The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. Therefore at this time only 718,385 people have signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.

Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.

Democracy in action?

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.

If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible."

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

[adam1516]

Hi Mister,

This will affect me first seeing as I live in the West Midlands, where it will be trialled .

Not sure where you get the idea that if you get 750,00 signed up to the petition you get a block on government legislation. That's a little fanciful.
The minister in charge of this said the petition was "nonsense".

It WILL be introduced - bet your hind teeth on it.

[Mister Gradenko]

Hi Adam

The front page of today's Times newspaper says that now 1 million people have signed up! With over 90,000 in just one day!

It's also been on BBC News 24 today and seems to be quite a breaking news story on e-democracy and of course congestion charging. I think in all honesty it is an interesting trial run for e-democracy in the UK and I do agree with you that the government won't listen to the petition one bit.. but I am keen to see the outcome of this from a democratic perspective.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6349027.stm is the link to the story on the BBC website.

[Secret Journey]

yh I signed up to this about a month ago, 90,000 in one day bloody hell.

[Mister Gradenko]

Anyone can post a petition there... some are good, some are bad.

Here's a link for petitions the government refused to hold (some quite rightly) , it includes petitions to...

Ban Football

To Resign immediately and call an election (rejected because there is already a petiton for it!)

Stop denying that he dyes his (tony blair) hair

Ban old people from towns and city centres during weekdays..

Change the name of Holloway Road to Chuck Norris Road

settle general elections in a the wrestling ring!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/list/rejected?sort=date

[gezellig]

There was also a petition to replace the national anthem - God Save The Queen - with Spandau Ballet's "Gold". Funking love that one.

Anyway, I'll sign but it's not worth a wank. They only introduced this to stop people taking boxes of signatures to #10. Think of the numbers of people - far in excess of the toll tax petition - that marched against the Iraq invasion.

Rgds
G~