My direct democracy petition has finally gone live (a few weeks after setting it up). So please share the below link and sign the petition (if you agree with me, of course!) I probably should have set this up a few weeks ago, though, before the bruising EU referendum campaign turned people off referendums.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/157241

If a petition gets 250,000 signatures, it should trigger a national referendum

Engagement with politics is continuing to decline. Direct democracy is part of the solution.

When an official petition receives around 250,000 signatures, it should result in an official, binding referendum.

More details:

In Switzerland, when around 0.6% of the population signs a petition, it triggers a referendum (https://www.ch.ch/en/referendum/). This system works well in a country of more than eight million people, and there is no reason why it wouldn’t work well in the UK.

A committee or group should be set up to administer these petitions so they do not needlessly consume government time. Note that only a small number of petitions a year would receive the needed signatures.

© 2016 Bryan A. J. Parry

featured image from https://petition.parliament.uk