Indeed, I've always thought of them as a cunning way of soaking up some of the pressure. The UK's version ( http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ http://epetitions.

Indeed, I've always thought of them as a cunning way of soaking up some of the pressure. The UK's version ( http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ ) goes a step further as you have to provide your name and a full address, so regularly signing petitions will be giving the Government a nice set of data to mine to provide a political profile based on views on certain issues... The site says "This information will not be used for any purpose other than in relation to the e-petition." but that doesn't fill me with confidence that they can't do mining...