The Prime Minister’s website has, since November, a facility that allows members of the public to create online petitions. The assumption being that your views might be heard by someone in a vague position of power within the government. When I first saw this system I thought it was a good idea. I thought that for once the government was using the Internet, and specifically the web, in an innovative and useful way. While a number of petitions are a bit of fun there are also an equal number of quite serious topics being highlighted by the website.

Over the last month or so over 1 million people have, rightly or wrongly, signed a petition asking the government to scrap plans for a proposed road pricing scheme.

Today the London Evening Standard is reporting that:

One high-ranking member of the Government said the idea [of an online petition system] had been dreamt up by a “prat” and was proving to be a public relations disaster.

I would like to point out to the high-ranking member of the Government that you can’t have your cake and eat it. You can’t say you are listening to the views of the public and then get all stroppy when the public don’t go along with the party line.

I hope that the online petition system remains on the website. It will be a shame to see a progressive system die because a high-ranking prat can’t handle a vocal public.