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Original poster

No petitions out of respect for the Queen

39 replies

SingularityCat · 12/09/2022 17:13

Wtf?!

petition.parliament.uk/

"Following the sad announcement of the passing of Her late Majesty The Queen, petitioning has been paused until normal Parliamentary business resumes.

Petition closing dates will be extended to take account of this period.

Please check back for updates."

Sorry if there's already a thread on this, I looked but didn't see one. This just seems like taking it way too far! Why on earth would it be disrespectful to have a petition?! Unless there was an influx of "abolish the monarchy" or "exile Andrew" petitions. Even then, I thought we lived in a democracy and everyone was entitled to have their say..

OP posts:
Maireas · 12/09/2022 17:57

Clymene · 12/09/2022 17:56

I'm vehemently against the monarchy but the absolute stupidity of so many people criticising them in the last few days has almost turned me.

Indeed.

Augend23 · 12/09/2022 17:57

SingularityCat · 12/09/2022 17:31

Wow, I'm surprised noone else is bothered by this tbh. It doesn't mention it's out of respect for the Queen, you're right, I didn't notice that. But why else would it be suspended? It's not as if the people who deal with the petitions website will suddenly be drafted in to help with crowd control or whatever. The government is often preoccupied with important matters and I don't think they close petitions in that case...I don't think they close petitions when they go on their holidays either? Don't understand why this is different tbh if it's not for "respect".

Not drafted into crowd control - but sorting out sending out 10,000 invites for the events of the next 10 days, or updating websites with all the changes or cancelling and sorting out the leave of others/organising shift work/rotas/overtime. I have no idea what they are doing but there are plenty of tasks that don't involve literally going out and acting as crowd control.

It's a temporary pause with a specified end. If a republican wants to put a petition on they can do it on 20th September without issue. It's really not sinister.

vodkaredbullgirl · 12/09/2022 18:01

🙄

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

The royal family
MarshaMelrose · 12/09/2022 18:04

SingularityCat · 12/09/2022 17:44

But what if a republican wanted to start a petition to abolish the monarchy now, capitalise on feelings running high etc? That's the opportunity lost for them.

Show quote history

We shouldn't be making massive decisions that will effect our future forever because feelings are running high. My husband would have been dead on several occasions if that was how we operated.

If people feel so strongly, I'm sure they'll still feel strongly in a weeks time. If they've changed their mind by Tuesday, then they never should gave signed the petition.

deflatedbirthday · 12/09/2022 18:07

@MarshaMelrose 😂 at the comment about your husband!

On a more serious note, I absolutely agree!

Andromachehadabadday · 12/09/2022 18:11

SingularityCat · 12/09/2022 17:57

The reasons given are not valid or plausible at all! Petitions aren't suspended during the many weeks of parliamentary recess each year, petitions weren't (to my knowledge) suspended when Boris prorogued parliament a few years back.

I'm amazed how many people see it as ok that the government has effectively gone "We're too busy to let you have this bit of democracy right now. You can have it back later".

You don’t think they are valid or plausible.

That doesn’t make it so

Andromachehadabadday · 12/09/2022 18:15

SingularityCat · 12/09/2022 17:57

The reasons given are not valid or plausible at all! Petitions aren't suspended during the many weeks of parliamentary recess each year, petitions weren't (to my knowledge) suspended when Boris prorogued parliament a few years back.

I'm amazed how many people see it as ok that the government has effectively gone "We're too busy to let you have this bit of democracy right now. You can have it back later".

i didn’t think the porogation suspended all Parliamentary business?

CampRedLeaf · 12/09/2022 18:19

The entire government of the country has ground to a halt after the queen died.

I don't even know if the fuel price freeze actually got finalised TBH.

Whataretheodds · 12/09/2022 18:26

Augend23 · 12/09/2022 17:16

Given it doesn't actually state that the pause is out of respect for the queen, I would assume it is for practical reasons - keeping the petition site running, dealing with queries and new petitions etc will take staff time. A giant load of government staff will be busy busy busy sorting security arrangements etc so if you can redeploy some staff for a couple of weeks they would probably be very useful.

It's this - normal Parliamentary business haa paused due to the mourning period. Of course that mourning period is out of respect but it's not the petitions themselves that are an issue.

notsosoftanymore · 12/09/2022 19:01

Singularity Cat, I'm with you.

I found out because I followed a link to a petition about government plans for Freeports which will include national parks where fracking, mining and corporate activities of all kinds will be allowed to take place out of existing regulatory frameworks. I couldn't sign a petition against this because the page/website is suspended and my immediate thought was how convenient and when will they start accepting petitions again and what kind of back up will there be and how long will that take to get through. Just one example of why it's hard to understand the suspension of the page and with the most undemocratic government ever in power, I didn't think it was innocent.

thereisonlyoneofme · 12/09/2022 19:18

Ooh another conspiracy !

notsosoftanymore · 12/09/2022 22:14

If only it was a conspiracy, not difficult and quite jaw dropping to do just a little research. I'm glad I don't live in Teeside.

Anyway back to the subject of the thread, with top civil servants being sacked, a cabinet full of toadying sycophants and the likes of Rees Mogg saying why should a paid holiday be a right for anyone, I'm surprised at the meek acceptance of the petitions website suspension.

I could launch into tales of many government website inefficiencies, but it's my bedtime, yawn.

MarshaMelrose · 12/09/2022 22:21

I don't see the big problem. The petitions committee is already bogged down so everything's delayed anyway. People had too much time over covid. They were signing everything.
The petition closing date has been extended by 10 days so no time lost. And the committee isn't working anyway so they wouldn't be processed.

Andromachehadabadday · 13/09/2022 08:38

MarshaMelrose · 12/09/2022 22:21

I don't see the big problem. The petitions committee is already bogged down so everything's delayed anyway. People had too much time over covid. They were signing everything.
The petition closing date has been extended by 10 days so no time lost. And the committee isn't working anyway so they wouldn't be processed.

ExactlyZ

But people love to create and spread conspiracy theories, instead.

i think some hope to incite some fear. Others are just in the Delusion that the fact that they see it and others don’t, means the they are special.

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