Petitioning Power

I was invited to sign a petition on Saturday, and again on Sunday. When I checked it the first time, it had 100,000 electronic signatures. When I checked the second, a million. Now, it has well over two million, though the momentum seems to have decreased. It is located on the website of Parliament and it has enough support to warrant a governmental and parliamentary response. It is calling for a new General Election because ‘the current Labour Government have gone back on their promises’. A retweet by Elon Musk seems to have got the ball rolling. Even if the figure reaches 3 million, it will be well shy of Labour’s 9.7 million votes received in the July election. Although the petition will be noted by His Majesty’s ministers, they are under no constitutional or moral obligation to act upon it. We elect governments for five yearly terms and we cannot sack them just because we change our minds, or we consider them dishonest or incompetent. Although I think the present administration’s most significant achievement is making their predecessors look not as bad I thought they were, there is yet time for Sir Keir to reverse his fortunes. A great many farmers are outraged by the plans to charge inheritance tax on farmland valued at over a million, and I am aggrieved at the rise of bus fares. On a darker note, euthanasia and ‘conversion therapy’ bans are on the legislative agenda. Whatever our views of the Government, we are commanded to pray for those in authority, with the aim of quiet living.

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 1 Timothy 2:1-2, NKJV

So let us petition about His Majesty's Government, to a greater Majesty's Government, one which will both hear and act.