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I've always felt these were just "rage honeypots" - allow the slacktivism a place to be vented to make people feel like they're doing something, with no action

• Traster 8y ago
  That might be true in general, but actually that won't always work. This is a great indicator int he run up to the protests at the weekend. It's also a great stick to beat the government with - so it makes news now, and it makes new when the government inevitably has to reject it. Edit: It is already being raised in parliament by opposition MPs https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1108708533019832323 https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1108708533019832323
• OJFord 8y ago
  Yes, they exactly are. It's not a "petition to cancel Brexit" it's a "petition to consider debating the idea of cancelling Brexit". i.e. 1) it doesn't necessarily happen (and often doesn't) even if the threshold is passed; 2) if it is, it is _debated_ - that doesn't necessarily (and probably doesn't, at least as a direct result) mean that whatever the petitioners want is actioned. The inverse argument - various petitions with a theme of 'leave in March' - was debated in January, here's the transcript: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-01-14/debates/694BA27D-566E-4F52-BC4B-8FC1ACA3F109/LeavingTheEU https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-01-14/debates/694... Note it's a debate in a small committee room between people that the average (even politically interested) Briton has never heard of, minor backbenchers, it's certainly not a well-attended row in the Commons Chamber of the kind you see clipped on television. And why should it be? MPs are already debating Brexit options, there's no need to petition them to do so.