WHEN 103,000 people signed a petition to end the UK’s membership of the World Health Organization (Leave WHO) they reasonably expected a debate and were shocked to be told it would not happen.
But even surpassing the 100,000-signature mark is no guarantee of a Westminster Hall sideshow as Andrew Bridgen MP made clear in his intervention in Parliament yesterday.
About ten per cent of the time reaching the 100,000 signature mark doesn’t make it happen, the most common excuses being that the government has already taken action, that it was covered in another debate or that the situation has changed. In other words it is a pretty arbitrary process which depends on the personal sentiments of the committee members.
In the case of the Leave WHO petition raised by Andrew the House of Commons Petitions Committee told us that the subject had already been covered in recent debates about the Pandemic Treaty and the revised International Health Regulations therefore it did not need to be held. But had it been covered in either of these debates? No, it hadn’t.
What is quite evident is that the Petitions Committee, chaired by Cat Smith MP, is not keen at all on discussing WHO. An earlier petition Do not sign any WHO Pandemic Treaty unless it is agreed via a public referendum waited a full year for debate.
The truth we have to face is that we have an installed Prime Minister, in effect an unelected government in a uni-party state, who do as they please to suit their cronies. They remain in power and unaccountable though they with their appointed regulators and advisors have destroyed the economy, wreaked havoc on public health and well-being and, some may argue, the very fabric of society. There is no way to unseat them until the election when most likely an (almost) as-bad party takes over.
We need a reform where the people can demand change and call them to account unhindered by propaganda and nudge.
We won’t solve this overnight but with the introduction of Direct Democracy where people decide some of the most key decisions, not least over how public money is spent, we could start to move in the right direction. The question is, how can we do this?
The Swiss who have a successful working system of direct democracy have a petitions process where anyone can trigger a referendum with sufficient signatures. Could that work in the UK? I think so, and it could be jump started by reform of the ePetitions process. This is what I campaigning for.
Anyone should be able to write a petition in their own words without limits and if a sufficient number of signatures is reached (I have proposed 500,000 to align with the Swiss system), have the country vote on their request. For naysayers out there is it so impossible to garner half a million signatures when popular Twitter reposts reach over a million? It shouldn’t be.
To make this work, please sign my petition to Reform ePetitions and get your family and friends to sign too.
Take the currently rejected Leave WHO petition, if it were to reach 500,000 signatures instead of 100,000, it would break the MSM glass ceiling and get media coverage. Then the pressure would be on the Petitions Committee to reconsider? But nothing is going to happen until people make their voices heard and encourage others to as well. This is NOT party-political. It is in everyone’s interests.
So whether you believe the UK should leave WHO or not, I would encourage you to sign it, because it is the best way we have for ordinary people to have their say; the best way we have of exposing the patronising illusion of democracy – showing that we will not stand for it – and of making democracy actually work for us in the UK.