Almost six times as many people as voted Liz Truss into 10 Downing Street are demanding an early general election in the hope of having her ejected.
Parliament will have to debate the petition because it has topped 100,000 signatories – and this may create a problem for Truss, who does not have the full support of her party in Parliament (especially after the godawful stink she has made in just four weeks).
The call for an election has been echoed by former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.
She tweeted that there was ‘widespread dismay’ at the prime minister – and we can conclude that she meant among her fellow Conservative MPs.
The government responded to the petition on September 20, saying nothing would change: “A change in the leader of the governing party does not trigger a general election – this has been the case under governments of successive political colours.”
But that isn’t the issue now.
The issue now is that the UK’s current – unelected – leadership has crashed the economy and cannot accept its role in having done so, and millions of people think it is time for a new administration.
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One can’t help feeling there’s some malice behind the “queue jump” saga involving Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.
The This Morning presenters have been accused of jumping the queue to attend the body of the late Queen Elizabeth II as she lay in state in Westminster Hall – a queue that, at one point, it would have taken 14 hours to traverse.
But it seems to This Writer that they were just doing their job – reporting on the event for viewers of their show. They had press passes and were accorded the same access as others who were covering it. And of course, they were there because their producers had told them to go.
Yet a petition demanding their removal as presenters has hit 55,000 signatures.
Here’s a video clip about the controversy:
Personally, I’m sure they have done much more questionable things on their show – supporting Boris Johnson in some of his more idiotic moments springs to mind. Why couldn’t they be pilloried for that?
Award-winning: Reading Buses regularly invests back into its services and have one of the greenest fleets in the UK.
Greater Manchester has won the right to cap bus fares at £2 for adults and £1 for children after a landmark ruling by the High Court.
The ruling allows the metropolitan authority to regulate bus services there in the public interest.
Liverpool, West Yorkshire and Sheffield plan to do the same.
But the victory has opened up the debate on whether local authorities should continue to be banned from running services for people and not profit.
Even the Tory government seems to have shifted its position on this, believing the ban on municipal ownership is now “ripe for review”.
According to We Own It,
Only 9 municipal bus companies around the UK survived Thatcher’s disastrous deregulation. Because these bus companies don’t have to pay dividends to shareholders, they can invest more into improving local services.
This makes them incredibly popular, with Nottingham City Transport, Reading Buses and Lothian buses all regularly winning awards.
The power of public ownership has led Reading to have the best passenger numbers outside London, with a 40% jump in just 6 years! Talk about levelling up.
If the Reading model of public ownership was rolled out across the whole of Great Britain, it would save well over £500 million a year.
Sadly the Tories seem to have lost track of this great idea, amidst all the emergencies they have created over the last year, in order to distract us.
We Own It has launched a petition to raise interest and prompt the Tories to remember the statement they made as part of Bus Back Better, their national bus strategy, launched on March 15 last year.
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Peter Mandelson: why isn’t Keir Starmer already investigating his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell?
One of the reasons This Writer appealed for readers to sign a petition against Tony Blair receiving a knighthood was his association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who procured children for him to sexually abuse.
Blair’s name appears in Epstein and Maxwell’s infamous black book – once.
Blair lieutenant – and now an advisor to current Labour leader Keir Starmer – Peter Mandelson has 10 entries in it.
Starmer seems to think there’s nothing amiss with this.
So there’s a petition calling for Mandelson’s Labour Party membership to be suspended while an independent investigation into the extent of his involvement with Epstein and Maxwell’s sex trafficking, paedophilia and sexual blackmail enterprise takes place.
Visit the petition page to see seven reasons Mandelson’s behaviour should be investigated.
Tony Blair: he thought he was going to be knighted after dragging the UK into a genocidal war against a country that wasn’t doing us any harm. Now he may have to think again.
The petition to stop Tony Blair being made a “Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter” has now acquired more than a million signatures – but the tiny minority of the privileged in Westminster are digging in their heels.
The petition passed a million signatures yesterday – January 7 – and at the time of writing has nearly 1,050,000.
Over a million people have now signed the petition against Tony Blair's knighthood.
Some have commented on the number in terms of the number of deaths Blair caused during his disastrous adventure into Iraq with George W Bush of the United States:
Ironic that the petition to strip Tony Blair of his knighthood has roughly one signature for every Iraqi who died as a result of the war.
But others have been busy devising spurious arguments to stymie the will of the people.
This Writer has heard rumours that Downing Street will refuse to accept the petition, point-blank. No explanation, no justification – just entitled disdain for the demands of the grubby Great Unwashed (as they still consider us).
An alternative has been put by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey – that whether Blair receives a knighthood is a matter for the Queen:
I wonder, does Ed Davey believe we should have to respect the Majesty's decision to knight Jimmy Saville too? Or is it disrespectful to "her majesty"…. https://t.co/BkZKccPYmi
There’s just one problem with this – but it’s a big one: the Queen is not responsible for decisions on who receives a knighthood; she acts on the recommendation of the prime minister – and in this case, he is acting on the recommendation of Labour leader Keir Starmer.
So for Davey – sorry, Sir Ed – to suggest that the petition is flying in the face of the Queen’s wishes is nonsense.
And all the time, the total number of signatures is mounting up. So far, nearly one-fortieth of the electorate has signed.
How many will have to, before the Establishment realise we won’t back down?
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Tony Blair: half a million (so far) say he doesn’t deserve a knighthood. What do you say?
A petition calling for Tony Blair to be denied the knighthood he has been given in the New Year Honours list has received more than half a million signatures in two days.
That’s still fewer than one per cent of the UK’s population, but the number of signatures and the speed at which people have signed the Change.org online petition clearly indicates a huge groundswell of protest against the honour for a former prime minister who led the UK into a war that killed a million people on the strength of a lie, and whose name appears in child sex procurer Ghislaine Maxwell’s infamous ‘black book’.
It is now one of the most popular petitions ever to be hosted on Change.org.
Blair’s nomination to the highest order of knighthood in the UK – the Order of the Garter – is also considered to be a signal to the general public from the UK’s rich and entitled Establishment, that our opinions don’t matter a jot, that they will do whatever they like, and that they will rub our faces in it whenever they get the chance.
Blair was nominated for his honour by Labour leader Keir Starmer, who also nominated Islamophobe Trevor Phillips for a knighthood – for his services to equality!
Starmer really insulted us with that one – having a racist knighted while claiming that his version of the Labour Party is fighting hard against racism.
If you haven’t signed, and this article has encouraged you to do so, please visit Change.org and follow the instructions.
State-approved sewage: but if the water companies are dumping untreated sewage, then they’re not fulfilling their contract with their clients – the public – and they owe us a refund.
Here’s a very good point:
We pay for the water company to take away surface-foul water to be treated at local sewage works.
This amounts to around 45-50% of our annual bill.
If the companies dump that waste water into the river or sea, without treatment, they are ripping us off.
Water companies have dumped sewage into rivers or the sea for years. Even in the height of summer during periods of low rainfall.
It is more profitable for them to occasionally sluice the sewage, when they think they can get away with it, rather than treating it.
If they were not just fined for any illegal dumping but forced to refund for treatment they haven’t done, it may make them a little more hesitant to carry on this disgusting practice.
That is the object of a new petition on the UK Parliament website: as water companies aren’t treating sewage – despite being contractually obliged to do so – then they owe their clients a hefty refund.
This is something that seems to have passed by the Tory government when it offered the privatised water companies a free pass from treating sewage on the grounds that they couldn’t get the chemicals from the European Union.
But the logic is clear. If they’re not buying and using the chemicals, then they don’t need the half of our water bills that is supposed to pay for it.
And the UK’s Tory government should make sure we get our money back. Right?
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Duper’s delight: This is the smile Boris Johnson wears when he is lying.
One month after Dawn Butler was ejected from Parliament for pointing out – rightly – that prime minister Boris Johnson has lied to MPs “time and time again”, this happens:
A petition calling for dishonesty within the Houses of Parliament to be made a criminal offence has reached the 100,000 signature threshold required for a debate in the House of Commons.
But will the Tory government – whose prime minister is the most prominent liar on the Green Benches – have the guts to host it?
The petition states: “The Government should introduce legislation to make lying in the House of Commons a criminal offence. This would mean that all MPs, including Ministers, would face a serious penalty for knowingly making false statements in the House of Commons, as is the case in a court of law.
“We believe false statements have been made in the House and, although regarded as a “serious offence” in principle, options to challenge this are extremely limited as accusing a member of lying is forbidden in the House.
“Truth in the House of Commons is every bit as important as truth in a court of law and breaches should be treated in a similar way to perjury and carry similar penalties.”
The government has already provided a response, which is mandatory after any petition passes 10,000 signatures: “The Government does not intend to introduce legislation of this nature. MPs must abide by the Code of Conduct and conduct in the Chamber is a matter for the Speaker.
“It is an important principle of the UK Parliament that Members of Parliament are accountable to those who elect them. It is absolutely right that all MPs are fully accountable to their constituents for what they say and do and this is ultimately reflected at the ballot box.”
But MPs are elected only by voters in their constituency – and then go on to disgrace the entire country. We need a mechanism by which anybody – not just local electors – can hold MPs to account and the criminal law should be it. And how, exactly, do constituents hold their representatives accountable?
“Freedom of speech in Parliament is an essential part of our democracy. It is a right that enables Parliament to function freely and fully, ensuring that MPs are able to speak their minds in debates, and to represent their constituents’ views without fear or favour.
“Parliamentary privilege, which includes freedom of speech and the right of both Houses of Parliament to regulate their own affairs, grants certain legal immunities to Members of both Houses to allow them to perform their duties without outside interference.”
Nobody is denying MPs these rights, of course. But freedom of speech is not freedom to lie. And legal immunities do not stretch to immunity from telling the truth.
The simple fact is that, time and time again (as Ms Butler rightly put it), MPs including the prime minister have deliberately and knowingly lied to Parliament and the nation – and they have been allowed to get away with it by a weak regulatory system and a weaker Commons Speaker.
We, the people, require a means by which we may directly hold our representatives to account.
If the petition calling for legislation to install such a means is refused, then Parliament will be admitting that it is corrupt, and that its members should be denied permission to make laws governing the rest of us; they will be demonstrating that they rule for themselves, not the nation.
This Writer would urge you to write to your own MP, demanding they support the demands of the petition and seek the introduction of strong legislation during the next Parliamentary session, to hold all Parliamentarians to account for their lies.
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Napier barracks: a journalist was arrested for taking photographs of a protest against conditions in the camp in January – not for taking part, but for embarrassing the Tory government that forces people to live in such inhumane, unhygienic conditions.
It’s scandalous – isn’t it? – that after being forced to empty the notorious Napier Barracks concentration camp for refugees, the Tory government is planning to fill it up again.
The camp, which housed around 400 people in homicidally cramped conditions (during the Covid-19 lockdowns, remember) in which 28 people were forced to share dormitories, was cleared after half its residents contracted the virus.
As an observer, This Writer can only conclude that this was the intention. Why else would Priti Patel put asylum-seekers in such unsuitable accommodation? Remember: other possibilities were available but ignored.
Independent inspectors have reported that the former barracks in Kent is unfit to house anybody at all, pronouncing it “filty” and “impoverished”.
According to The Guardian, the Home Office has absolutely no problem with inflicting more suffering on anybody unfortunate enough to be sent to the Napier site:
“We secured permission to use Napier barracks for 12 months and while pressure on the asylum system remains will continue to make use of the site.”
Take particular notice of the wording: “While pressure on the asylum system remains [we] will continue to make use of the site.”
It indicates that SNP MP Stuart McDonald was right when he said:
“That choice is a political one.
“The whole Home Office machine is hell-bent on ensuring life for people seeking refuge is as miserable as possible in the hope it will put off others from applying for refugee status.”
It has been said before but it is well worth reminding everyone that Home Secretary Priti Patel’s parents fled persecution by Idi Amin in Uganda to settle in the UK – and, to the best of our knowledge, they didn’t have to live in a dehumanising concentration camp.
Now she is very deliberately doing her very best to prevent anybody in a similar position today from doing the same.
In so doing, she sets herself up as a prime example of the selfishness and inhumanity of the current Conservative government – which is fascist in all but name.
Campaigning site 38 Degrees has launched a petition calling on the government to remember its humanity, if not its sanity, close the camp and find humane accommodation for the people being sent there. Already it has accumulated more than 77,000 signatures.
Yours will help change Patel’s mind. Please sign by visiting the petition page here.
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No ventilator for you: even after the NHS announced that ‘do not revive’ notices should not be forced on people with any disabilities at all, let alone learning disabilities, it is still happening. Is this a quiet cull?
Personally, This Writer wants to know who is still signing these orders after the NHS announced that they were forbidden and everybody should be involved in deciding the level of their own care.
It is clear that this is still not happening, and it is still people with disabilities who are being targeted for death by abandonment.
This petition is an attempt to raise the public profile of an issue that the media seem determined to ignore – so let’s do what we can to get as many people to notice it and sign it as possible.
It states:
People with learning disabilities have been given do not resuscitate orders during the second wave of the pandemic, in spite of widespread condemnation of the practice last year and an urgent investigation by the care watchdog.
Mencap said it had received reports in January from people with learning disabilities that they had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were taken ill with Covid-19.
The Care Quality Commission said in December that inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices had caused potentially avoidable deaths last year.
DNACPRs are usually made for people who are too frail to benefit from CPR, but Mencap said some seem to have been issued for people simply because they had a learning disability. The CQC is due to publish a report on the practice within weeks.
This is absolutely disgusting and cannot be allowed to continue. We must stand against this and not allow the UK to become a fascist state
We are all one and everybody has value. This is a serious human rights issue and cannot be allowed to continue in this day and age. We must join together and show we will not stand by and allow this horrific practice to continue. We must stand firm and resist this and insist this practice ends now!
Once again, the petition is here. Please sign it and pass it on to your friends and social media contacts.
This may not affect you – now. But who knows who will be targeted next?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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