Anti road pricing petition at 1.7m signatures

Just popped over to the PM's website to see the sentiments about the road pricing schemes that are being discussed. 1.7m people have signed up so far. 1,776,104 to be exact.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if such petitions would inform policy making, Ms Kelly said: "I think it's a good test of public opinion on a particular issue, but what they don't judge is the overall terms of the debate, the choices that politicians have to make in a representative democracy." [italics mine]

That's a lotta lotta unhappy people. I wonder if their voices count for anything? How many people does it take to make the government change their minds?

Apparently, The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that as the Downing Street website crashed after so many people wanted to add their names to the petition, one minister said: "Whoever came up with this idea must be a prat".