Is the Government listening?
No, it’s not a paranoid rant about surveillence and the ‘big brother’ state.
Actually, I just discovered a pretty cool thing - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/. This is an on-line site where you can sign up to petitions in an attempt to influence government policy. You can even start your own petition if there’s something you really care about.
I just signed up to a petition asking the Government not to introduce the ‘mileage tax’, as I don’t want to be GPS tracked and charged for every mile that I do.
I also signed up to a couple of petitions to ban faith schools of all denominations. All religions should be taught in schools in RE lessons to give pupils a balanced and informed view of faith. The schools themselves, however, should always be multi-faith, encouraging integration of all cultures in the community. Deliberately segregating youngsters based on the religion of their parents and/or the school governors is just plain wrong. Youngsters should be free to choose their own faith (or not as the case may be). Besides surely in the era of political correctness, faith schools are a bit of an anachronism.
Whether or not the Government will listen or not is of course entirely another thing, but signing up to an on-line petition at least allows you to air your views without going through all the hassle of writing to your MP. Let’s face it, that ain’t ever going to happen.