Hannan posted a selection of Guardianista comments:The government is to follow the lead of The X Factor television programme and allow the public to decide on legislation to be put before MPs.
In an attempt to reduce what is seen as a disconnection between the public and parliament, ministers will ensure that the most popular petition on the government website Direct.gov.uk will be drafted as a bill. It is also planning to guarantee that petitions which reach a fixed level of support – most likely 100,000 signatures – will be guaranteed a Commons debate.
Ministerial sources acknowledge that the proposals have the potential to cause headaches for the coalition because populist causes célèbres – such as a return of capital punishment or withdrawal from the European Union – could come top of the list.
The leader of the Commons, Sir George Young, has signalled he wants to press ahead with government by petition in the new year.
Populist tripe of the worst kind.Confirmation, if it were ever needed, of the educational gulf between militant lefty Guardian readers and the champagne socialist, technocratic 'elite' on their editorial staff.
Govt by petition oh dear, soon the Daily mail Tax payers allience and Talk sport nutjobs will get to say who eats has a home and care and who doesnt. pandering to the mob and Pontius Pilate springs to mind. they are evil beyond belief
Next up, lynch mobs.
Now for clamourocracy. Unbelievable.
What a bunch of tossers.
In a word: pathetic.
So, hanging back in by next christmas then....
Oh my god!!!!! I don't believe what I am reading. If this government think this is the way forward, so help us all.
Govt by petition? Gods teeth a Nation run by Mr & Mrs semi detached chip on shoulder DailyMail cardigan kendal mintcake hang em and flog em let em starve send em back. oh my were so foooked
Here are some more of my favourites (uncensored):
DanielFrisbee 27 December 2010 9:07PM Acephalic 27 December 2010 9:21PMIf they really mean this, it's time to petition to nationalise the utilities and the banks.
mrStringvest 27 December 2010 9:24PM
expect DailyMail types to set up numerous e mail addresses and wear their little fingers out untill they get 100,000 hits
Im sorry Dave but you just havent got afoooking clue what your doing27 December 2010 9:27PM
FFS...expect hanging to be back in the UK in 2011.
Mob-rule has just been legislated.Cuse 27 December 2010 9:29PM
Is this the same as their website for deranged socio-paths? You know, the one that asked for public ideas that got turned off after a few days because it was so stupid?
This Coalition can't decide whether it wants to take us back to Thatcher's '80s or into the weird La-La land that Cameron resides in his head.
You know, the one where you can take billions out of the NHS and call it a cash increase and then claim they are the party of the NHS?
Christ this Country is going to be a shit place to live, be educated in, work, look for work in, be poor, invest in or be ill in within a few short years. Its depressing.
MERidley 27 December 2010 9:31PM
So soon public flogging and hanging, what are these people good for.. 'absolutely nothing'
ADeadSeagullInABin 27 December 2010 9:36PM
dreaming of guillotines.
easternstrix 27 December 2010 9:37PM
Is this some kind of a nightmare coming true?
What would you rather have, one lion ruling over 100 oxes or the other way round? This is the most irresponsible idea I have ever seen!
1tsirhcitna 27 December 2010 9:39PM
red/ blue/ green/ pink /black /yellow /etc .....you are all fucked if you follow the idiots that think they know how to lead a populus...BE subversive right now .. the collective subversive can make a difference.. its called war.. change the future for your childrenKenBarlow 27 December 2010 9:47PM
"So if the majority of the people want to withdraw from the EU, politicians should... ignore them?? "
What I would have is tests to weed out the nations morons. Only after passing tests does your vote count.
So, for example, when my parents say: "We need to withdraw from the EU and kick out all the blacks" in an X Factor ad break, they should be made to sit some kind of test so they can actually prove they know why it is we must withdraw from the EU - prove it's not just cos they're a bit racist, Daily Mail readers and people who don't really know that much about the EU, the alternatives and the consequences (if any) of withdrawal.
The danger is in a democarcy you'd end up with people like my parents setting policy - my parents are lovely but they ain't 'alf as smart as they think they are. Tey are not experts o naything - they just have their tabloid fuelled opinions - the wisdom of the cab driver, the "common sense" of those who know the easy way to deal with peadophiles, benefit fraud and students...
HassledinHastings 27 December 2010 9:53PM
Cannot believe I am reading this. What more is their to say? A bunch of fecking corrupt clowns. We need more people on the streets. Perhaps when the Houses of Parliament go up in flames and the bastards get chased out of the country they might start to get the message.
ThermidorRequiredNow 27 December 2010 9:56PM
There is no answer to this nonsense that does not start and end with mass killings of the privately educated.
And more encouragingly,
1tsirhcitna 27 December 2010 9:20PM
we are all fucked ... please go to your nearest suicide booth ..
WillSum 27 December 2010 9:21PM
Can anyone suggest good places to emigrate to please? (Seriously)
To be fair, I have my own doubts about democracy. But it's amusing to see how keen the socialists are to quash debate on issues they find unpalatable, how easily their thoughts turn to bloody revolution, and how quickly they expose their utter contempt for the 'common people' they claim to represent.
Thankfully, there were a few 'Tory trolls' around to inject some rational contributions:
MrBendy 27 December 2010 10:09PM
Laid bare on this page is the deeply ambivalent attitude of Socialists towards the appropriate relationship between what the electorate wants and what politicians should do.
Where the public seem reliably left-wing in their instincts, giving the majority of the people what they ask for is apparently not only desirable but essential. Hence on bankers' bonuses, on fat cats, on the NHS, where the left are entirely comfortable with the opinions expressed, the demands of the clamouring masses are deemed to be based on considered values and sincerely-held moral convictions and so should obviously be assuaged by responsible politicians.
But when the public is infuriatingly right wing, Hell should, of course, freeze over before politicians respond accordingly. On immigration, crime or the EU, the public's views, disliked by the left, need to be dismissed as the superficial product of manipulation by Murdoch's media outlets and any responsible politician ought to do everything possible to ignore them. Doing what the majority of voters want in such cases is, to use the ritual insult, merely "kneejerk populism".
As Kolakowski, who knew more about the modern intellectual history of leftism than most, correctly said, democratic socialism is ultimately "as contradictory as a fried snowball".
My god, please let the revolution come soon! This foul bunch raping the country need to be strung up pronto.