Hello, Simon - re: your observation - "if you haven't guessed it, i think the likes of 38 degrees etc have far from opened up democracy have in fact anaesthetised us to it - we all click a petition link and change our twitterbook pictures and think we've done our bit, and worse we think everybody else is doing our bit as well."
I think I have found 38 Degrees refreshing and, sometimes, exciting. I feel our "democracy" is now no such thing. We vote, and then discover that what we get is often something quite different from what we thought we were voting for. Parties put in their manifestos those things which they hope will win them an election. The manifesto hides two things: 1 a hidden agenda of actions which may prove deeply unpopular (e.g cutting tax credits for low earners) and, 2 the enormous power of vested interests - especially multinational corporate power which, increasingly, dictates government policy (with the support of many MPs, I suspect). There's no democracy in that. The current administration governs also by political dogma. Government of the people, by the people, for the people may never have represented what actually happened, but I think we are further from that now than in (my) living memory. I wrote to my MP about the plight of the refugees in Calais, suggesting we have some moral responsibility there, and he replied saying how glad he was that David Cameron had agreed to take 20 000 refugees (over 5 years) from Syria. He doesn't listen. He doesn't engage. He simply parrots government policy. I once wrote to him complaining that he served his party rather than his constituents (following a similarly evasive reply to a letter from me) - and I think he was quite offended. But, as there seems little point in trying to express my concerns to my democratically elected representative in Parliament, because I am not listened to, and not engaged with; I do find 38 Degrees provides a way in which I may join with like-minded people so that, together, we may be heeded. And I am sure we are, on some occasions at least. I may not be a typical 38 Degrees member, but I certainly do not sign every petition they offer me. And the same goes for Avaaz - in fact, I suspect I may sign fewer than half the Avaaz petitions that arrive in my inbox. Do you really think that most 38 Degrees members just go clicking petitions and think they have "done their bit"? The thing is that one becomes aware of so many really serious issues these days, that it is impossible to "do one's bit" by them all. But is that a reason for not signing a 38 Degrees petition?
If we were to use the official uk parliament petitions engine, that would mean putting all the info., currently on the 38 Degrees petition page, in emails to people inviting them to sign the Parliament petition. One could do that, of course. And I do realise that 38 Degrees is open to abuse - if someone wanted to assume 1000 different identities, with 1000 different email addresses, the they could, theoretically try it. But do you have any evidence that this happens to any significant extent? I hope not!
Thanks for engaging with this.
Best wishes
John