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UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

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Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#241
post #50

These petitions are almost always met with a boilerplate response. There was a recent one (which I can't find as the site's currently down) regarding Russian interference in the last UK election, with the government response being along the lines of "we don't know what you're talking about, move on". More on that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/b2vmm0/gover... While the huge number of signings o…

I don't really understand how Paris has real protests almost every weekend, yet we're leaving the EU and we've just had a few marches. Marches do nothing, they're preplanned to cause minimal disruption, just make the people in them feel like they're doing something so that it doesn't go further than that. The march on Saturday needs to at least move off the preplanned route and actually cause some inconvenience.

That would do nothing good. At this point only illegal things (black mail, kidnapping, etc) can force the brexitiers in parliament to call for a new election.

Since it is illegal, I do not endorse it; instead I will just watch the UK burn itself.

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, the citizens of the UK and former British Empire have never managed to pull off a revolution. I don't know if complacency is ingrained in the culture (plenty of evidence for the opposite), but the French started beheading kings when they were not happy. The UK still supports a figurehead monarch. No evidence of correlation or causation, but just saying.

What about the English Civil war which ended up with Charles I being executed? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England Also the later, and peaceful, Glorious Revolution?

His son was returned and those who had voted to execute his father were punished, so it didn't really work out for them.

As for the Glorious Revolution, what did it do, other than put a German on the throne?

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally major constitutional changes require supermajorities to pass

Not in the UK. All constitutional referendums have used 50%+1 including the original remain/leave referendum that happened a few years after joining.

I'm talking generally across the world, and not just referenda.

> the original remain/leave referendum that happened a few years after joining

That wasn't constitutional change. Nor was it binding.

This referendum was also non-binding, it's right there in the act of parliament that authorized it.

Of course once Parliament agreed to invoke article 50 the referendum became irrelevant. Parliament - specifically the Tories, Labour, DUP, UUP and UKIP mps who decided to take us out of the EU with no deal, not the referendum.

320 MPs can change the UK constitution (although there are some protections with the House of Lords), which is the anomaly globally.

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surely the original referendum counts as being listened to in some way? Even ignoring all the illegality and fraud about the referendum, and ignoring that because it was advisory large portions of british citizens living abroad were prevented from having a say, and ignoring the arguments about 16-year-olds who it would be directly affecting because of the time lags, and ignoring the arguments around the fact that t…

Nothing good happens when you cancel election results. See all these African countries with elections canceled...you better make sure the vote is not frauded in the first place. As far as I'm aware nobody got convicted(unlike in the U.S) so your fraud argument is weak even today. I can see a second referendum on no-deal vs May's deal though.

Their fraud is well known amd documented. Here are some of the fines against the leave campaign for breaking the law.

Vote Leave fined for election fraud. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44856992 Leave.EU fined for election fraud. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44080096 Labour Leave fined for undeclared donations. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47623595 Vote Leave fined for unsolicited texts using football lottery to gather details. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47623413 Eldon Insurance and Leave.EU fined for data breaches when misusing company email data. https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-bl...

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surely the original referendum counts as being listened to in some way? Even ignoring all the illegality and fraud about the referendum, and ignoring that because it was advisory large portions of british citizens living abroad were prevented from having a say, and ignoring the arguments about 16-year-olds who it would be directly affecting because of the time lags, and ignoring the arguments around the fact that t…

Nothing good happens when you cancel election results. See all these African countries with elections canceled...you better make sure the vote is not frauded in the first place. As far as I'm aware nobody got convicted(unlike in the U.S) so your fraud argument is weak even today. I can see a second referendum on no-deal vs May's deal though.

So whats the argument against a dictatorship? The people voted for the leader once, therefore they should legitimately have lifetime rule.

Or, re-calling a general election after 1.5 years. Didn’t ‘the people’ already decide?

How about if they were promised one thing, and voted for it, and it turned out to be impossible and based on lies and fraud?

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#246
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Current opinion polls Polls before Brexit where wrong, no reasons to trust them now.

They were within a margin of error on the day of the vote.

That’s false.

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#247
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should we expect random politicians to know better? After all, a stupid decision taken by uninformed politicians isn't necessarily better than a stupid decision made by the people.

> random politicians to know better? They're not random, you're supposed to vote for them. And they're supposed to represent your general opinion. They're supposed to have an education in politic/economics/&c. which makes them better equipped to make informed decisions. And it's supposed to be their full time job. Just like anyone can bake bread at home with no tools / minimum knowledge but the bakery at the corner o…

Politicians in Western democracies are demonstrably not more thoughtful, deliberative, logical, rational, or intelligent than their average countrymen.

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#248
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should we expect random politicians to know better? After all, a stupid decision taken by uninformed politicians isn't necessarily better than a stupid decision made by the people.

> random politicians to know better? They're not random, you're supposed to vote for them. And they're supposed to represent your general opinion. They're supposed to have an education in politic/economics/&c. which makes them better equipped to make informed decisions. And it's supposed to be their full time job. Just like anyone can bake bread at home with no tools / minimum knowledge but the bakery at the corner o…

> education in politic/economics/&c

That doesn't magically make a person competent in other matters. On the contrary, many politicians with a background in economics or law show a frightening lack of insight in many other topics like environmental issues, information technology or science, whereas you will find plenty of experts within those fields (as well as economics and law) within the general populace.

The claim that elected politicians are somehow more competent than we are is a scary one. They are people just as we are. They have limitations just as we do. They specialize in various fields like they do, and just like the rest of us, that often means they don't really know that much about the stuff that is outside their own field.

Re: UK Parliament petitions site crashes under traffic for petition to cancel Brexit

#249
post #205
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of the issues are matters of opinion, not fact. I don’t see how you can make this claim. Perhaps you have seen more mere-options than me?

The opinion that fewer immigrants will mean less crime. That our trade deal in the EU exposes our companies to unfair competition. That fewer immigrants will help preserve 'our' way of life. That we will be free to reach our own trade deals with other countries. Most of Brexit is about forward-looking hopes and expectations. I don't believe it, but it's hard to disprove because what do people even mean by 'our' cultu…

Hmm. I believe the two trade examples are testable (and as claims, the former false and the latter true).

The other two I will grant you, and I thank you for providing them.

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