Call a General Election? Really?

[Veryoldandtired]

I mean, I very much doubt this will get anywhere in the parliament but nearly 2 mil people signed it in just over 24 hours 😬

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700143

As posted elsewhere

I have no doubt that if such a system had existed in 1979, then there would be a petition to call for a General Election after Thatcher had won.
And one when she won again.
And again
And when Major won
And when Blair won.
And when Cameron won
And May
Etc
And especially when Johnson won

I think stripping pensioners of winter fuel allowance was unnecessarily cruel. They could have capped it a little higher and stopped the wealthy from receiving it within a threshold.

Taxing private schools is an own goal as the country will now have to pay for millions of children to use the state system, and find the extra buildings and space/teachers etc. It’s the politics of envy.

Crippling small businesses was not cool at all, many just won’t survive.

Targeting our farmers when we desperately need to build resilience in our food supply.

There is nothing they have done so far that I agree with… everything feels worse than before. Incredibly.

And especially when Johnson won

What are you referring to re the system? There are petitions on there from 2010

@itsgettingweird where are you getting that from?

If you look at the site it says this

About petition data
The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.

Not sure the point is to effect a new general election and more to signal that a large percentage of the voting public are unhappy with labour. They need to respond to the message this sends (not by calling an election obvs) but by owning the fact that people are unhappy with them and start considering policy adjustments.

They won’t though.

It's just nonsense.

If you go back to the 1970s and 80s

If you go back to the 1970s and 80s

So you didn't mean Johnson as in pp?

You mean people who weren't happy with Labour are still not happy with Labour

Have you considered the alternate: Many people are either happy or indifferent about Labour but you are only hearing about a petition where people are unhappy?

Johnson could be included in that.

I am sure you would find a petition calling for a general election after he won

And no doubt there would have been one during Thatcher's time

Not particularly enamoured with how the new govt has started out but ffs an election already!! Not another one.....

But I still wouldn't call the people that sign the petition "thick", Tory/Reform 'bots' and yet again mention Brexit.

The same could be said about those who signed the petition against the Brexit referendum result 😀

Same thing happened after Brexit.. it's not going to happen.

Yes, it won’t happen. At least their time in power is limited. I’m pretty confident they will get voted out at the next election now that everyone can see what life really is like under a Labour government.

yes, I agree that winter fuel allowance could have been capped higher, but something did have to happen about it.

The VAT on private education will affect only 7% of families. 7%. New buildings won't be needed as it's really a relatively low number. And the big bulge years really have passed now.

Farmers haven't been "targeted". IHT has been, basically, simplified. And again, it's a really small number of people affected by IHT - currently just over 4% of estates pay it. If the rich hadn't taken the piss by using the farm loophole to avoid paying IHT then maybe this wouldn't be needed. Even Jeremy Clarkson happily announced he had bought his farm to avoid IHT (though, now, obviously he says he didn't mean it!). James Dyson, who doesn't even bother living in the UK, has done the same. Inheritance tax won't be paid on the first £1m still, and then only 20% IHT will be paid, rather than 40%. With a will, a couple owning agricultural land, can pass on up to £3m IHT free still. They can also pay the IHT over 10 years tax free. Which isn't available to others. In 2022 there were only 117 farms (out of 209,000 farms in England) valued over £2.5m, so again, it's going to affect a very small number of people.

You forgot the millions of small businesses that will carry even more financial load. I don’t agree with that? They were struggling as it is. I am worried this decision will cause a recession, we can already see vacancies dropping.

Me! I feel like they're doing a fairly good job so far!

I don’t need to consider anything at all, alternate otherwise.

However 2m people being moved to sign a petition (not been done on this scale and speed) is a public opinion indicator that any government or party would be foolish to disregard.

…and obviously petitions are used to signal things people are unhappy with - they are about seeking change or redress. But feel free to start a new one to say ‘lets all go out and clap for labour’ or some similar thing to signal public approval. Am sure that will gather signatories at a similar pace.

Ok

You clearly have your opinion and that's your reality.
No alternate view will be able to dissuade you from your reality.

The amusing thing is that, if they got their wish and had another election, the chances are that their hero Farage wouldn't get in because the voters of Clacton are so fed up with the way he has made it so blatantly obvious he couldn't care less about them.

But feel free to start a new one to say ‘lets all go out and clap for labour’ or some similar thing to signal public approval. Am sure that will gather signatories at a similar pace.

Why would anyone with half a brain sign up to something as pointless as that? It's nearly as ridiculous as petitioning for an election within 5 months of the last one.

Sorry, I missed one part. Nice that you completely ignore all the other information I took the time to find and work out.

So, if someone has an employee on £30,000 a year, the employer will pay an additional £360 a year. This sounds similar to the minimum wage / national living wage argument that employers can't afford to pay a fair wage that people can live on.

Do you think it would be better for the individual to pay more in National Insurance?

WTF?

I have simply stated that I think the fact that 2m people have signed a petition within 24hrs asking for a general election to be called - out of a voting population of 48m - is pretty significant and any government of any political hue would be bloody stupid to ignore it without reference to reconsidering its narrative and the policies it is implementing. All parties follow trends and research into public feeling on issues throughout their governance. Been doing it for decades (hence YouGov polls), intentionally, to ensure they maintain the support and backing of those that voted for them. That’s reality. No need to try and dissuade me from it as I’m happy with the facts as I see them.

…but feel free to toddle off to your own reality where you can patronise and talk down to people who present alternative opinions.

Someone has posted the info and screenshots above.

And you've been given an alternate view that you have decided to ignore.

It's ok.

When presented with alternate views, some people get defensive about them.