Gordon Brown "resign" petition - A response!

In a rather unexpected move (unexpected by anyway), Gordon Brown has actually responded to the petition that called on him to resign on the No 10 petitions site and that 72,234 of us signed. His response reads:

The Prime Minister is completely focussed on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As the Prime Minister has consistently said, he is determined to build a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all.

I think this response encapsulates everything that is wrong with our Prime Minister. It doesn't even address the issue, i.e. him resigning. I never expected him to actually resign but the least he could do is acknowledge what the petition said in the first place. It just looks like the sort of meaningless robotic nonsense he spews out at every PMQs and every time I ever see him interviewed.

The man seems to be entirely divorced from reality. As I mentioned months ago, more people have petitioned him to resign than the 24,278 who voted for him in his constituency in 2005 (the only mandate he actually has). In fact the total is nearly 3 times that number.

Still, we now only have a few months to go before we all get the chance to show him what we think. He will have no option but to respond to that petition.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition closes with 72,000+ signatures

The "Gordon Brown resign" petition which was still in No 1 position for live petitions yesterday has now closed with 72,222 signatures. It is now in the top 10 of all time petitions. As we all know, these petitions generally reflect much wider opinion but I think it is a decent snapshot of those who think for whatever reason that he should no longer be our Prime Minister.

Indeed it is notable that despite all his rhetoric, it had been announced today that the UK is still in recession. The only developed economy still to be in that position. This just underlines for me that even on the one thing Brown is supposed to be experienced on, the economy, he has utterly failed.

I just wanted to say congratulations to Kalvis Jansons, the organiser of the petition. I know he worked tirelessly to promote the it and I think the fact it was top of the live petitions for so long and achieved so many signatures is a sure sign that he tapped into a strong feeling across the country.

The is some MSM coverage of the closing of the petition here and here.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition now in all time top 10

A notable milestone has just been passed by the "Please go" petition on the No 10 website. It has just gone into the top 10 for all petitions (both open and closed) on the site. I am sure Gordon Brown's staff will be aware of this.

Interest in the petition has waned since its heady first few weeks when the number of people signing it rocketed up. I wonder if a further wobble by the Labour party around its conference in early October could see renewed interest. If wavering Labour MPs who deep down know it is all over for Brown need their spines stiffening perhaps they should take a look at the 70,677 people who have signed it so far. We all know that a petition like this represents many more people than the ones who have signed it.

If you haven't added your name yet then you have until the 22nd October to do so. Go on. It's in a good cause.

Is Gordon Brown afraid to delegate No 10 petition approval?

Kalvis Jansons (the chap who created the Gordon Brown resign petition on the No 10 petitions website which is now at over 70,000 signatures and rising) has e-mailed me this morning with some interesting information.

Apparently no new petitions are being allowed to be launched on the Number 10 website until Gordon Brown returns from his holiday on the 7th September (see below)

In case you can't read it, the text says:

Notice: Submission of new petitions will be closed until 7th September while the Prime Minister is away from Number 10. You can still sign any petition during this time.

That seems very odd to me. Whilst he is away, great decisions of state are being looked after by in turn Harriet Harman, Peter Mandelson, Alistair Darling and Jack Straw (on a sort of week long stand-in PM work experience job timeshare basis as far as I can tell). Yet none of them are deemed capable of giving the nod to petitions for the No 10 site.

I know that since the success of the Brown petition, Kalvis has had problems when enquiring about other petitions he would like to start. It seems like the No 10 operation has tightened the petitions criteria up in recent months.

If I was being mischievous I might suggest that the reason for the restriction above could be that Brown perhaps does not entirely trust his colleagues not to give the nod to even more embarrassing petitions....

Labour's shocking performance in Euro elections

With the dreadful news that the BNP have got two MEPs elected there is a risk that this news dominates the next news cycle and lets Labour off the hook.

But these results in a nationally contested election are the worst in Labour's history for alomst a hundred years. In fact you have to go back to just after they were formed when they were still finding their political feet to see a result so bad. It is amazing to see the party of government in such a state.

They have dropped more than 7 percentage points or in other words about a third of their support. In some regions their vote has more than halved in terms of absolute voters.

Now I have no idea what Gordon Brown is going to say to his colleagues at the PLP meeting later today. However I do know what they should say to him. They should tell him that he has led them to their worst and most embarrassing defeat in almost 100 years. They should insist that he cannot blame America, or the credit crunch, or the expenses scandal. He needs to take responsibility for this himself, in exactly the way that Gordon Brown used to blame John Major for the Tories problems in the run up to 1997.

I know I have banged on about this before but after last night it is more clear than ever before. The polls are not wrong. The Labour party is now despised by huge sections of the electorate. If Gordon Brown remains the leader, the party could be all but destroyed at the next General Election.

For their own sakes, Labour MPs need to act now. A new leader will not be a panacea. They will still almost certainly lose the next General Election but they would mitigate their losses and would live to fight another day.

+++ James Purnell Resigns +++

Breaking on the BBC News right now. James Purnell has resigned to force a leadership challenge although he is not standing himself.

My £10 bets with Charlotte Gore and Kalvis Jansons that Brown will be gone before the end of June are looking better and better...

Does someone fancy a little wager?

I cannot recall such a febrile political atmosphere as there has been in the last few weeks and it seems to be building up to a spectacular crescendo which could see Gordon Brown ejected from Downing Street. Michael Crick on Newsnight last night gave him a no better than 50% chance of surviving the next few days as PM.

It may seem a bit unfair that the expenses scandal could precipitate Brown's defenestration but politics is a rough game and the crisis has occurred on his watch whilst he tried his best to keep the revelations secret. Listening to Shaun Woodward trying to defend Gordon Brown yesterday, I almost pitied him. Every single thing that he claimed were substantive issues that Mr Brown was best placed to tackle were all problems that he has been involved in creating in the first place (recession, expenses, cleaning up politics, trying to save jobs etc.).

There seems to be this tendency amongst Labout ministers to answer questions about the problems by listing the things that Gordon Brown is doing (or trying to do) and by implication nobody else could do anywhere near as good a job. In which case why are so many ministers resigning and Labour at its lowest poll ratings ever?

I am going to stick my neck out here but I now think this crisis will end the premiership of Gordon Brown by the end of this month. Events move fast in politics and I think the results of the elections today and the aftermath coupled with everything else from the last few weeks will cause his downfall. A consequence of that I think will be an election in the Autumn whoever becomes Prime Minister (and I wouldn't want to bet on who that will end up being)!

Does anyone wish to stick a tenner on at evens with me for this? Mr Crick reckons them's the odds. I will only take on one bet BTW, I'm not stupid!

UPDATE: (04/06/2009 - 18:06) I have posted this in the comments below:

Right the bet's on with Kalvis as he responded first.

I am also honouring the same bet with Charlotte Gore as she posted on her own blog that she would take the bet before Kalvis responded here but I did not make clear where the bet had to be posted. I will not take any more though as it was supposed to be only one!

I also feel that I should have been clearer about the terms of this. I am not interested in the inner workings of the Labour party and whether it takes them 23 days or 46 days or whatever to choose another leader and whether Brown stays on as caretaker PM in the interim. If he announces he is resigning and the leadership contest is triggered this month then I have won the bet.

As I was not totally clear about this, I am fine if Charlotte or Kalvis no longer wish to continue with it, otherwise it's game on!

Perhaps they could let me know below.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition - join the 64,000+

The "Please go" petition on the No 10 website is now past 64,000 signatures. After a period of slower growth in the last two weeks (presumably due to the distraction of the expenses scandal) it seems to have gone back to growing much more quickly.

I think this is because people are starting to realise across the country that Gordon Brown has to go now. The man is deluding himself if he thinks he can recover from this. He is supposed to be battling the recession but I suspect much of his energies are being put into desperately trying to consolidate his own position. this cannot go on.

If you have not already done so please go and sign the petition and join the more than 64,000 people who have already done so. We can all send Mr Brown a message during the election tomorrow but that could be misinterpreted. If there is a continued massive growth on the petition website, that cannot be misinterpreted by anyone.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition - 60,000 and counting

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown aint getting any better and the "Please go" petition on the No 10 website has passed 60,000 signatures today.

In fact if anything, Brown's dithering and indecisiveness about the whole expenses debacle and even his unwillingness to take a lead in the dire situation Michael Martin finds himself (Nick Robinson reported today on his blog that he thinks Martin would have had a nod and a wink from Brown that he could carry on fighting - terrible misjudgement) it just shows how out of touch he is.

I am sure a better PM would have got a grip of this much sooner. So, all the more reason if you have not already done so to go and sign it. The next target to aim for is probably 70,664 when it will enter the top 10 of all petitions the No 10 site has ever had (it is currently 14th).

"Gordon Brown resign" petition is still there

With all the other stuff going on at the moment about MP's expenses, it seems to have slipped off the media's agenda but the "Please Go" petition asking Gordon Brown to resign is still there on the Downing Street petitions website. At the time of writing, the numbers have just gone past 56,000 which is almost double the next largest one.

Brown is still an awful Prime Minister with no democratic legitimacy and if like me you think the time has come for him to go, please go and sign the petition.

There have been some suspicions that not all the signatures are being added and the rate of increase tapered off rather oddly, just as the media coverage was ramping up a week or so ago. I posted about it here last week. If you have problems relating to this, please contact Kalvis Jansons the petition's creator via this Google group.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition - Tory asks him about it at PMQs

A Tory backbencher, Andrew Rosindell asked Gordon Brown about the "Please Go" petition at Prime Minister's Questions today in the House of Commons. He pointed out that the number of signatures on the list are now more than twice the number of votes he got in his constituency at the last general election (which as I have posted about previously when the signatures passed this number is his only democratic mandate at all, as an MP for Kircaldy and Cowdenbeath).

Brown's response was to bat this question away by claiming that Mr Rosindell should be "ashamed" for not asking about policy.

I can assure Mr Brown that people like myself who have signed this petition and want him to go are not ashamed of doing this, or having our representatives in parliament bring it up like this. I am however ashamed that our Prime Minister has no democratic mandate to lead this country, is politcally tone deaf, has completely ballsed up our economy and yet has not accepted any responsibility for this. At all.

If you disagree with Gordon's analysis and think it is time he went then go to the petition and add your name to the 50,000+ people who have already done so in the last 2 weeks.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition - 50,000 and counting

The "Please go" petition on the No 10 website has just passed 50,000 this morning.

The rate of increase has slowed down in the last few days which I have posted about previously wondering why that might be but it is still by far and away the most rapidly growing petition on the site. As far as I am aware there has as of yet been no response from No 10.

It looks like the 50,000 are not the only ones who want to get rid of Brown. Even members of his own cabinet are now criticising him in about as blatant a way as possible without actually resigning. The decision as to whether or not he resigns could soon be taken out of his hands, but I hope that people still sign the petition to keep the pressure up.

If they want change, Cabinet Ministers need to resign

The criticism of the government/Gordon Brown by Hazel Blears as reported in The Observer is interesting and it seems pretty clear to me that it is the opening shot in a new round of Cabinet infighting. There are also reports that both Alan Johnson and Jack Straw have refused to say whether they will run for the leadership.

The problem is that speaking in code and muttering about "not getting the message across" is all well and good and can be parsed by political pundits and the rest but it is not clear enough.

When Thatcher was toppled in 1990, it came about because Geoffrey Howe who had been Chancellor and was then Foreign Secretary resigned and criticsed her directly in his resignation speech, suggesting that others should challenge her. John Redwood also had the courage to resign and challenge John Major in 1995 although he was not a big or credible enough beast to fell Mr Major but if someone like Portillo or Hesseltine had done so the outcome could have been very different.

My point is that for there to be change, there usually needs to be a grand gesture to precipitate it that nobdy can misinterpret or misunderstand. It seems to me that much of the Cabinet realise that Brown has to go if they are to stand any chance of avoiding complete annihilation at the next election but none of them so far have had the guts to actually do something about it.

I know that (s)he who wields the dagger seldom wears the crown but somebody has to step up. They will all be out on their arses in 12 month's time anyway and will likely be out of power for a generation so really, what do they have to lose?

"Gordon Brown resign" petition - Next Stop, All Time Top 10!

The "Gordon Brown resign" petition is now at around 46,000 signatures and is already No 1 of the active petitions. However if it can get more than 70,663 then it will enter the Top 10 of all the petitions they have ever had since the site was first created a few years ago under Tony Blair.

Hopefully that target can be achieved in the next few days.

Also, the petition creator now has a Google Group for discussion about the petition here: Brown "please go" petition HQ.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition. Suspicious rate of increase?

I have been following with interest and posting about the "Please Go" petition on the Number 10 petitions website that asks Gordon Brown to resign. I have posted about it several times now.

Kalvis Jansons, the person who started the petition now has a dedicated Google Group to support the petition.

He also posted the following on another thread on my blog which I am happy to reproduce here:

This is a 6 month petition, rather than the more normal 12 month. So, it is harder to break the record for the largest petition ever on Number 10. However, we effective blogging and the very early article in http://theregister.co.uk with title "Go, Brown, Go!", we were off to a fast start. I am working on increasing the rate of growth in the near future, and others are doing it in their way as well.

So, we are still in with a good chance of making this break all the Number 10 petition records. Your blog also helps in this, so keep up the good work.

Others seeing this can help, if they have digg.com accounts, by digging anything on the "Please go" petition on digg. We will reach some new people when we get on the digg.com front page, which should be soon, with a little help.

Also, we have not been on the 10:00 TV news yet. This will provide a big boost, and I am working on that, though any help would be welcome. Note, I am not trying to get on the TV, I want the story and URL mentioned on the TV.

Anyone with ideas, please post them on 10.kalvis.comThis is better than emailing me, as many others are helping and I can direct them to that site as well. Again this will speed things up a bit.

He has mentioned on his groups page that he would like to get to 2,000,000 before the petition runs out on the 22nd October (after 6 months) which would make it the largest petition to site had ever received. He has calculated that we will need an average of 11,000 signatures per day added in order to get this.

However, I am getting a little bit suspicious about the rate of increase. Since I started following the petition a week ago when it was at about 700 the rate of increase seems to have been pretty constant at about 6,000 per day. This is despite the fact that at first there was very little publicity and in the last 2 or 3 days there have been various mentions in newspapers and even on TV. I am confused as to how the rate of increase can be so steady in the face of this.

Is the website capable of handling more than about 6,000 signatures per day? Has anybody noticed any problems in trying to register their signature? I would be interested to know if there is a reason for this. Perhaps it is just a coincidence. It will be interesting to see if the rate goes up as the publicity it will get from the weekend and especially Sunday papers should surely cause a big spike? I will be happy to be proved wrong on my suspicions here and I will be watching the site closely!

UPDATE: Yesterday the growth was only about 3,000 which seems very odd given the exposure the petition had on national TV on Friday evening via the mention on "Have I Got News For You". There is a thread on Kalvis' Google Group for this too.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition. Now at the top!

The "Gordon Brown resign" petition has just reached the top of the chart with 28,454 signatures. Congratulations to Kalvis Jansons for getting there in just over a week!

It will be interesting to see how Number 10 responds to this now. They surely cannot completely ignore it. I know they can claim that some of the signatures will be spurious but I bet the vast majority are from real people and it reflects a strong feeling within the country that the man is a disaster and he should go.

There was talk within the blogosphere earlier today that David Cameron might bring this subject up during PMQs. I had hoped he might but he did not and the more I have thought about it, the more unlikely this seemed. Brown could have plucked a few of the obviously spurious names from the list that had made it through the vetting to make Cameron seem silly. Also, Cameron is probably thinking that assuming he becomes PM himself, after 6 months or a year of tough decisions when he is unpopular, a similar petition against him could be started and he could then find himself skewered with his own words from today.

But just because Cameron and others from within the political classes do not want to make the running on this does not mean that others such as political bloggers should not. Hopefully now it is at the top is should garner more media coverage and we can then get many more signatures. I think the next target should be 100,000 which should be achievable within the next couple of weeks if it is publicised widely enough.

"Gordon Brown resign" petition - numbers now exceed his votes at the last election

Unlike with Tony Blair, nobody outside of the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath actually voted for Gordon Brown. Blair got 9.5 million votes as putative Prime Minister pledging to serve a full term in the 2005 General Election. Brown has no real mandate for anything because not only has he never faced the electorate in a General Election but uniquely among modern Prime Ministers he hasn't even faced an election within his own party giving him even less legitimacy.

The number of people who voted for Gordon Brown in his constituency in 2005 was 24,278.

The number of people who have put their name to the petition for him to resign on the Number 10 petitions website has just passed this mark and is now at 24,325:


More people have now officially registered that they wish him to go than elected him MP in the first place.

There are only a few thousand more votes to go before it becomes the top petition on the site.

UPDATE: It is now at the top!