Petition to call for an immediate general election.

[ecogeorge]

Moderators,

Do we rally have to have politics on this forum. i enjoy the absence of politics here.

hear hear .........
George

[Oliver90owner]

Put very simply - what else would you expect from those with a vested interest? Only opposition parties will be pushing it, of course.

[spread-tee]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619781
756,832 signatures thus far.
You might be interested, or not.
There is also an Avaaz petition doing the rounds.

I think The King can unilaterally provoke an election. As can the PM or a parliamentary majority vote.

However I don’t believe any of the above have ever been swayed but a petition before, so I feel it is a waste of energy.

I'm another that thinks these online petitions are a waste of time. I think they were only created as a sop, a way to fool people into believing that they had some sort of democratic influence over government.

Have any of them ever actually achieved their stated goal?

This is why politicians can fob us off with any old numptiness, too few people can be arsed to call them out.

Desp

[spread-tee]

Put very simply - what else would you expect from those with a vested interest? Only opposition parties will be pushing it, of course.

But don't we all have an interest in a capably run Country?

Desp

[Mr Gus]

Any conversation on here involving the ongoing use of nuclear is politically based as it was the govt that insist, & we live with it, ditto anti wind turbines & solar mobs.

Basically though folks if you dont show you give a damn about them (the parties & individuals within) expect more crap & squeezing, whichever party they profess to be.

[Joeboy]

Moderators,

Do we rally have to have politics on this forum. i enjoy the absence of politics here.

I think it has its place as long as it is not causing harm to individuals here or excessively rabid. Extraordinary times, I'd hope to not see too much of it beyond the current events though, especially in this purely political non energy related form.

[Oldgreybeard]

Being realistic, it is absolutely impossible for politics in some form or another not to be mentioned here. Every single aspect of the things all of us here are striving to achieve are heavily influenced by politics, be it the way energy tariffs and rebates are structured through the schemes designed to encourage reduced energy use to the balance of energy sources that the UK relies on.

If politics was completely forbidden as a topic then many of the very helpful discussions here would be banned. Even something as seemingly innocent as the thread discussing incentives for reducing energy use during peak times is all about politics - the suggested £3/kWh rebate is a politically driven entity that could disappear at the whim of Government (assuming it ever materialises). Same goes for discussions on tariffs, they are now inextricably intertwined with the politics of the government and the way it is trying to balance high costs to consumers versus high costs to taxpayers.

I do think there is merit in not discussing party politics. simply because there are half a dozen or more political parties and it's very likely that there are members here supporting all of them. As long as any mention of political topics is in relation to the impact on all the things we all feel strongly about then I think that's fine, as long as it remains mostly party neutral. Last thing we need are people falling out with each other because of differing party political views - best if we each keep our party political allegiances (if we have any) to ourselves.

[cojmh]

Looking at the link, it says the topic has already been debated in parliament (on the 17th of October) so I am not sure if adding any more signatures would do any good.

The response (which interestingly seems to have been posted on the 20th of September - so not sure how that is possible before the debate on the 17th of October) states:

The United Kingdom is a Parliamentary democracy, not a Presidential one. Following the general election of December 2019, Members of Parliament of the governing party (the Conservative Party) were elected, such that there is a majority in the House of Commons. This remains the case. 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.

The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 provides that Parliament is automatically dissolved five years after it first meets (unless it is dissolved sooner), otherwise the timing is a matter of discretion for the incumbent Prime Minister (subject to re-established constitutional conventions).

In her speech of 6 September 2022, the new Prime Minister set out three early priorities: to grow Britain’s economy, deal with the energy crisis caused by Putin’s war, and putting the national health service on a firm footing. The Prime Minister is determined to address the challenges the country faces and ensure opportunity and prosperity for all people and future generations.

Cabinet Office

Take from that what you will.

[John_S]

Moderators,

Do we rally have to have politics on this forum. i enjoy the absence of politics here.

I think it has its place as long as it is not causing harm to individuals here or excessively rabid. Extraordinary times, I'd hope to not see too much of it beyond the current events though, especially in this purely political non energy related form.

Joe
I respect your views and the work you did to get this forum going and to keep it going. Thank you.

Others (or most of them),
Thank you for your supportive comments. I appreciate them.

Everyone,
Please don't forget that the alternative to the government we got at the last election, whose candidate I did not vote for, had as it leader someone for whom Putin and Russia could do do wrong. Much as I dislike the policies of this government, I would find it even harder to live under a government led by an apologist for Putin and Russia. I do not believe that sufficient in the opposition, including their trade union paymasters/puppet master's/supporters no longer share their previous leader's views.

I hold a high value to the freedoms we enjoy and Ukraine aspires to.

Enough said.

John

[Joeboy]

Very kind of you to say John, although I with all honesty can only be credited for a tiny fraction, many others involved.

We are currently 240 members and every time we share our stories or put active input into the group we grow the shared knowledge and help others for decades. With that in mind, politics of the day fade to insignificance. They are transitory, we and our shared knowledge are not. Game on!