Power 2010

Message received :-

Dear Mrs Rigby

Firstly I wanted to say thanks for blogging about us and mentioning the campaign.

You'll have seen that we're now over halfway through the public vote phase of the campaign where the top 5 reforms that will form the backbone of the campaign are being voted for by the public.

There are 29 ideas being voted on. PR is currently in the lead, followed shortly by abolishing ID cards and the database state - but a lot could change between now and February 22nd when voting closes.

We're hoping to mobilise as many people as possible to vote to make the result as legitimate and powerful as it can be to strengthen our hand when we finally approach politicians and with that end in mind I wondered if you'd consider featuring one of these fashionable Power2010 "Vote" buttons on your website or sidebar: (link removed by Mrs R)

There's even a choice of colours: black and white. Just copy and paste the HTML into your site.

Thanks again - and I hope you can keep following and blogging the campaign.

If you have any questions or feedback on the campaign do let me know.

All the best,

Ghazal
Power2010 team

Who could refuse such a polite request, so the button has been added over there in the sidebar.

In case you're wondering about Power 2010 there's all the information you need on the site,(link removed by Mrs R) but the main thrust is to get opinions, and votes, on ten issues, including Proportional Representation, Fixed Term Government, English Votes on English Laws, a Written Constitution, Scrapping ID cards - and so on.

Why did the Rigbys get interested?

Well, there's nothing worse than being led to believe you're being listened to and having your opinions respected - which was, apparently, the intention of the government petitions site. At the beginning it was lauded as a way of government keeping in touch with what ordinary folk were worrying about, but over time it got a bit like one of those birthday cards that says "All I got for my birthday was this lousy card" - because in response to signing a petition all you end up with is an 'on message' email that M$'s filters automatically consign to the junk folder, and you wonder if it was worth giving personal details (which are probably somebody's data-stick) away - over 72,000 people signed Kalvis Jansons' "Please-Go" petition.

So what's the point in voting for something on a site that doesn't seem to be linked with any political group? Well, that's what appealed to us, there's more about it here (link removed by Mrs R)

The public vote

The public vote began January 18th and lasts five weeks until 22nd February. During this time are working with individuals and organisations across the country to meet up, discuss, and vote, ensuring as many people as possible participate and tell us the reforms they most want to see.

The five most popular ideas following the vote will become the POWER2010 Pledge and the focus for our nation-wide campaign at the next election.

Election campaign

The aim is for as many people as possible to sign the Pledge and then take it to the candidates in their constituency, by writing to them, calling them, and attending local hustings, public meetings and MPs' surgeries.

Together we will ask every candidate standing at the next election to make a public commitment - a pledge - to clean up and reform our politics.

In this way we will ensure that the next Parliament is a reforming one and delivers the changes our broken democracy so desperately needs.

In the end it can't do any harm, and has the potential to do quite a lot of good - although, of course, some issues could easily be highjacked by those of a particular political persuasion, which seems to have happened with the PR issue - but no matter. It's worth a try, isn't it - at the end of the 'voting' we'll all be able to see the 'most important' issues and can then take those issues to the candidates for the next general election - and we'll be able to find out if they're really interested in getting our vote.
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