Children can sign anti-Brexit petition

[CrushedVelvet]

Those of you with children who feel strongly anti-Brexit may be interested to know that they may be allowed to sign the anti-Brexit petition that is currently going viral.

The rules state that you have to be a UK citizen or resident. You also have to have your own e-mail address, as obviously they want to ensure that individual people don't sign multiple times.

As this is a petition, not an official vote, you do NOT have to be on the electoral register. This means that children wishing to express their own views may sign - as may non-resident citizens and non-citizen residents.

According to the BBC, Andrea Leadsom said: "Should it reach 17.4 million respondents then I am sure there will be a very clear case for taking action" [see www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47652071].

It is currently at over 2.6million.

I only realized that children could sign after my 11 year-old expressed anger and frustration that he could not sign. This prompted me to double-check the rules and discover that in fact he could, which he did with great enthusiasm this morning.

The link to sign the petition is:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584

Personally, I feel that the country should pause at this point and have a proper second referendum in case the prevailing view has changed in the past 3 years. Most people have a lot clearer idea of what Brexit entails now than they did in 2016. For example, I don't recall any mention of the Irish border issue then. I do remember prominent claims about all the extra money Brexit would bring to the UK, which have since been revealed to be blatant lies. Instead we face a damaged economy and trouble staffing the NHS.

If you or your friends/family are eligible and feel strongly about this, please sign the petition! Thank you.

The rules for the site are the same for every petition
if you do not like them, ask for them to be changed
the rules have been the same since the site was launched

after all the Govt has for for ignoring most of them
so what does it matter

PS the data for overseas signatories tally pretty well with where UK citizens are known to live
britorbot.org/2019/03/22/revoke-article-50-petition/?fbclid=IwAR1ZWSON6TMUf764pQ7ax0wrKjmu_rPrneX_4rEWnGQxHWOdLila_gJCnKk

I naively put this up because I thought that it was a positive thing that articulate British citizens with a stake in the issues at hand, but who were not allowed to vote in the referendum, legally have this particular opportunity to make their views known at this time.

I thought that other parents of intelligent, interested children who had, like mine, expressed their frustrations over the issue would welcome the opportunity to inform their own children about their right to make their views known through the petitions.org website - however imperfectly and with however limited scope.

I am amazed that a few people here seem to think that the views on Brexit of teens/preteens, and of British citizens abroad, are irrelevant. Their future rights to live, study and work in the EU are at stake.

Letting these groups sign an online petition is certainly not equivalent to fabricating a vote in an election.

If Brexit is as economically damaging as currently seems likely, it will make it even less likely that any government will provide the additional funding to the NHS, schools, social services, and the environment that is so badly needed.

My 17 year old will sign thank you. If a 90 year old could vote in the referdum so should a 17 year old. It’s after all their future.

According to Nigel Farage - it's all Russian bots. So that's 3m Russian bots and babies then is it? They've been busy.

If being influenced by your parents was a reason you were not able to vote not many people would. Like it or not politics tends to fall in family lines (and peers) hence why many leavers/remainers tend to know only what they are
Children can have strong opinions about this I know many do in my DD class and school. Because they are the generation who one way or another will have to deal with it (and the Environment). My daughter is at 10 already liking the Green Party and having a voice about it
Giving children the voice is a good thing - which is what the OP did
Making an email address and voting for your child is not but that isn’t what she did

DS (18) signed last night and DD (13) just got the email. DD (10) has just signed too, thanks to this thread.

Children have a right to express their view on an issue which has huge implications for their future. Young people who voted at the time of the referendum were more likely to vote Remain. Expressing opinions should be encouraged, not shouted down.

Expressing opinions should be encouraged, not shouted down

As a Leaver I couldn't put it better myself.

I think it's perfectly legit for teenagers and older children to sign it. Brexit is throwing away their futures. I've encouraged my DDs (16 and 18) to sign.

If you're going by 'well, they can't vote so they shouldn't be allowed to sign' then I shouldn't be allowed to sign it either - I'm an EU national in the UK after all.

I imagine many people who are not eligible to vote can and have signed the petition.

Presumably Andrea Leadsom's comment quoted by OP "Should it reach 17.4 million respondents then I am sure there will be a very clear case for taking action" was based on the signatories being eligible to vote.

Then Leadsom yet again demonstrates her lack of knowledge or interest in rules

its a petition not an election
the rules are clear

I told DS it exists. It's up to him if he signs it or not.

I never said everyone in my hospital, I said everyone who I work with. Why did they? Cannot answer for them, but I have my reasons why I voted leave and I will not let a bunch of stroppy insulting immature remainers tell me differently

Yes, another "Uni educated, working in the NHS" leaver who insults remainers and cannot in anyway explain their decision to leave the EU.

It sounds like anyone living anywhere in the world can sign it, doesnt that make any result totally meaningless and unreliable.

Not really wigglypiggly. The government can tell if signatories came from outside the UK and discount them if they wish. At the minute that figure is 4% for this petition and that will include a significant number of UK citizens who happen to be abroad.

IMO it lost credibility soon as it was mentioned that children can sign. Imagine if we revoked on the back of this petition when it was based on the signatures of a large amount of children😮. Remain pre-teens trumping eligible adult Leave voters - can't see any possible issues with that at all😉!!

time4chocolate
So do you disregard all petitions on that site for the same reason?
Or just those you disagree with?

TIP No, but for a petition that is asking for such an important action to be taken I would expect it to have some sort of checks and balances otherwise it doesn't really tell you anything or stand up to scrutiny. I'm not a fan of petitions as you can tell but I suppose it's still all to play for at the mo.

chocolate
But the petition is utterly non binding
even less so than the referendum was
its a way to express a desire for change

why should that be restricted to the old
and barred from the young

TBF time4chocolate, you and many Leavers on this thread were always going to be looking for reasons to discount this petition.

The fact is it is a petition, run to the same rules and regulations as all the other petitions on the UK petition site. It needed 100,000 signatures to be debated in parliament. It got the 100,000 and over 3.5million more. So far!

Even more reasons to think these gov.uk petitions are a really good thing, you can engage children in the decision-making process too.

Maybe 'your children' can start a petition in protest at their ridiculous bedtimes that 'you' enforce? And by using their 'unrestricted' social media accounts they can urge all other children to support the overturning of 'your' bedtime rule?

Why not? It's all feel good stuff anyways, it's hardly 'big news' or means much at all.

My 16 year old signed off his own bat before I'd mentioned it to him. He thinks he should have a vote at 16. He's certainly got well enough formed views. And he doesn't just agree with his parents. Not that we would dream of agreeing on everything anyway.
He never even considered that he wouldn't be allowed to voice his opinion. It's ridiculous to say this discredits it. Talk about 'scraping the barrel'.

I'm absolutely shocked at the attitude that some people are displaying towards children's opinions on this thread. Both my teenagers have formed their own views on Brexit during the last three years of near constant news coverage. Of course they have. Why on earth shouldn't they express their opinion if they choose to?

TBF time4chocolate, you and many Leavers on this thread were always going to be looking for reasons to discount this petition.

Dion -I certainly wasn’t looking for a reason but it pretty much slapped me in the face by way of having its very own thread.