The Media Really Botched the GE Petition Story...
Political hacks gunna hack.
The recent general election petition has garnered a lot of attention online.
In short, a man by the name of Michael Westwood started an online petition calling for another general election. Not many noticed at first. But then it picked up traction, a lot of traction.
He wrote: “I would like there to be another General Election. I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election.”
For some, it marked a serious call for accountability. For others, it’s a playful jab at a government that many feel has let them down. Either way, the petition’s momentum is undeniable, with nearly 3 million signatures in less than a month.
To understand why it struck such a chord, we need only glance at some of Labour’s u-turns since coming to power.
Labour pledged not to increase university fees, but they did. Winter fuel payments for pensioners were cut despite promises to protect them. The government vowed to reduce electricity prices and instead presided over an 18% hike. Starmer swore there’d be no tax increases on working people, but continued the council tax rise of 5% and upped national insurance. And then there’s immigration—Starmer declared he would “smash the people-smuggling gangs,” yet hundreds continue to arrive illegally every week.
Let’s also not forget the very real two-tier prosecution and sentencing of non-violent Southport protestors, the halting of the university free speech act, and investigating "misogyny" as terrorism.
For context, Starmer’s election victory was backed by 9 million voters, with turnout historically low. The fact that the petition is approaching a third of that number in such a short span of time is becoming slightly embarrassing.
Predictably, detractors wasted no time dismissing it. Among them, Daily Mirror associate editor Kevin Maguire—who infamously called a Covid vaccine injured victim an “anti-vaxxer”—led the charge.
He shared an article from his newspaper titled: "Truth behind general election petition as identities behind signatures debunked”.
The article, written by Sophie Huskisson, highlighted data from the petition’s publicly available JSON file. Her analysis revealed that 3,000 Australians, 2,018 Spaniards, and smaller numbers from the US, Canada, and France had signed the petition. Yet, she strangely downplayed the proportion of British signees.
It’s a curious choice considering that around 99% of those who signed online are from the UK. That’s 2,772,645 as of the last count. Some “bot-tastic” debunking…
This was before Huskisson credited Elon Musk’s retweeting of the petition link and his “swirling conspiracy theories that police treat white far-right rioters more harshly than ethnic minority groups”.
Even more amusing? Both Huskisson and Maguire completely ignored the higher number of overseas signees of the remainer petition that called for Britain to rejoin the European Union after Brexit.
To me, the question of whether the petition leads to another general election is besides the point. Obviously, it won’t. It’s more a poll (of course with its limitations as an online petition) of discontent, signalling how pervasive disapproval is.
If the petition nears or exceeds that of the number that voted for Starmer in July, then it’s served its purpose.
As for Maguire, let this act as yet another example of legacy journalism in dire straits. He is, after all, a senior editor of an outlet that, as of 2021, held the third-largest monthly platform reach in the UK, averaging 33 million consumers.
Further Reading:
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Will it lead to another general election? "Obviously, it won't".
Ain't that the truth. It won't even be properly debated. These online petitions never are - a few interested parties turn up for free tea and biscuits in a side room somewhere and that's it.
I have come to the conclusion (after many years of thinking) that we really need a revolution here in the UK. Not a violent one but a velvet one. We need to get rid of central government and the 650 odd MPs who are pointless and don't represent anyone. We need to have local government run by local people. Each county could elect local people to run their area, to keep roads fixed, schools teaching, hospitals working, food uncontaminated, criminals arrested. A small central government with one person per county could ensure there was a small standing military and strong border controls. Then we could all just live our lives - any issues could be dealt with locally. We'd have to leave all those supranational bodies (UN, NATO etc) and cancel all those treaties none of us voted for but, hey, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs!
Maguire ranks in the top 3 of my most disliked media figures. His ranking fluctuates between 1 and 3 depending on how recently I last listened to him.