Number 10 Petitions Scandal!
Oh, look at this!
Is this a scandal? Or just the people who run the Number 10 e-petitions site making a little mistake on this occasion?
Not long ago, I looked for petitions on the Number 10 e-petition site calling for Jacqui Smith to be sacked. Out of curiosity, I looked at rejected petitions, and found that many such petitions had been rejected. What really caught my attention, though, was the following reject:-
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/sackjacqui/
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to remove the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, from office for gross ineptitude.
"Since taking the post of Home Secretary we, the public, having become increasingly alarmed at her inordinately extreme actions with regard to various events. The latest being to question the European Courts' decision to castigate the UK government for the illegal retention of DNA samples of non-offenders. It is to be hoped that the government can find someone of less Stalinist conviction."
Unfortunately, this petition had been rejected:-
"This petition has been rejected because:
"* It was similar to and/or overlaps with an existing petition or petitions
"Additional information about this rejection: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Sack-Ms-Smith/"
But when you visit the supposedly similar petition, you find it's this:-
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Sack Jacqui Smith for gross incompetence.
"Jacqui Smith has overseen the most destructive period of activity by this government on the moral of the various British Police Forces and should be sacked and replaced by someone who actually understands how important the police are for the safe operation of a society."
So instead of petitioning against Jacqui Smith turning the UK into a police state, you have to petition for the government to do even more to turn us into a police state instead! At least, that's the way this comes across.
Wasn't it Jacqui Smith who denied that this government is "Stalinesque"?
Let's kick up a storm about this. It'll be fun!