72,324 sign a petition - with no positive outcome.

Kalvis Jansons' "Please-Go" petition is now closed, and the 72,234 signatories will have received their response.

The petition said:-

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to resign.”
Details of Petition:
“There are many reasons why we might want Brown to resign, but rather than having lots of narrow petitions on this topic (most of which have been rejected), I wanted one for all of us.”

The response says :-

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.

Luckily for Mrs Rigby she noticed her email from Number10 had been automatically consigned to her Junk Folder!

Interesting EU petition.

There is an EU petition, mentioned in the Indy, that so far has around 38,000 signatures.

This is where it is

This is the background, which is provided in each of the languages of the European Union. Mrs Rigby has chosen to share the English version :-

Petition [EN]: We, European citizens of all origins and of all political persuasions, wish to express our total opposition to the nomination of Tony Blair to the Presidency of the European Council. To sign the petition, please go to the bottom of this page. follow this link

Whilst she would hesitate to influence, or appear to coerce, anybody who might chance upon this blog post, Mrs Rigby does think it is rather odd that such a huge 'democracy' as the EU does not give its' citizens the opportunity to vote for its' very first 'President'. Instead those already in authority have presumed that they are better placed to make that decision on our behalf.

Because of this Mrs Rigby urges you to read the full text of the petition and then make up your own mind - perhaps mulling over the relative merits of Mr Blair and the other 'candidates' for the job ...

Here's more from the Indy article :-

The alternative front-runners

Jan Peter Balkenende 4/1: Current Dutch PM, a Christian Democrat once described as a 'petit bourgeois Harry Potter'

Jean-Claude Juncker 5/1: Prime Minister of Luxembourg, author of the Maastricht Treaty and therefore creator of the euro

Paavo Lipponen 6/1: Former PM of Finland, a social democrat who supported the Iraq war but is not a toxic figure in Europe

Mary Robinson 8/1: Former president of Ireland and UN human rights chief whose odds at Ladbrokes shortened yesterday

Mr Brown's Monday.

Environment Minister Jane Kennedy refused to swear oath of allegiance to Gordon Brown and has been forced to resign.

This comes after Caroline Flint's resignation, after Sally Keeble likened Mr Brown to Michael Foot and after Bridget Prentice's announcement. It comes after Margaret Beckett was sacked. It comes after Lord Falconer's suggestion that Labour could do with a new leader, and after Mandelson was appointed First Secretary of State and thus Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. It comes after Mandy's little freudian slip on the Andrew Marr Show. It comes after last week's cabinet resignations.

It also comes after yesterday's Euro election results, which were a disaster for Labour.

The Labour Party, the party currently holding a majority in the House of Commons, the party that is in charge of this country, only managed to gain 15.8% of votes cast. This means that 84.2% voted against Labour.

Thanks to Proportional Representation Labour only lost 6 seats - there were gains for the Tories, UKIP, Lib Dems and the BNP.

According to Conservative Home Labour was voted into fifth place in :-

West Worcestershire, Surrey Heath, Mole Valley, Maidstone, Melton Blaby, Test Valley, Royal Borough of Kingston, Lewes, Rutland, MendipTonbridge and Malling, Ribble Valley, New Forest, Banstead, Isle of Wight, Eastbourne, Guildford, Derbyshire Dales, S Staffordshire, W.Worcestershire, Wokingham, Canterbury, Torbay, Epping Forest, North Norfolk, West Dorset, Ashford, Elmbridge, East Herts, Richmond on Thames.

Labour came fifth overall in the South East, so Dan Hannan won his bet with Guido.

There is no Labour MEP representing South West England, where Labour polled only 8,483 votes.

The Please-go petition now has 66,671 signatures. Another, less well publicised, petition calling for a General Election has 5,895 supporters.

In last week's local government elections

Labour came third in the mayoral ­election in Hartlepool, which saw the re-election of a former football mascot. Stuart Drummond, who first stood as H'Angus the Monkey, the former Hartlepool United mascot, as a joke, won his third term as mayor with a majority of more than 800 votes.
Labour also came in third in the Doncaster mayoral contest, which was won by Peter Davies of the English Democrats.
In the St Ives ward of Cambridgeshire county council, Labour came sixth behind two Conservatives, two Liberal Democrats and Lord Toby Jug of the Official Monster Raving Loony party.

On Saturday the Prime Minister was booed by Normandy Veterans, brave survivors of a bloody conflict to regain democracy and freedom in Europe. He then renamed Omaha Beach. The Labour Party's response was a hurriedly contrived photo shoot on Sunday, to present an illusion of popularity.

Mr Brown's has decided that he will carry on; he will continue as Prime Minister. He says he has a duty to do so. Mrs Rigby sometimes wonders if Mr Brown perhaps he sees himself as omnipotent, she wonders if perhaps he has been persuaded that the position of Prime Minister is his birthright.

Mrs R doesn't know what the Unions think of the current situation - they are remarkably quiet. Mrs R doesn't know what the PLP thinks of all this - there is a meeting this evening.

Mrs Rigby knows Mr Brown is not listening to powerful people within the Labour Party, he is not listening to the newspapers or the electorate - she is convinced he knows he is not listening to "the people". She also believes that, deep inside, he knows what he should do - and that is to call a General Election, but he is scared because it might well lead to the death of the Labour Party whilst he is its' leader.

She thinks Mr Brown will continue to listen to his unelected advisors and will continue to gather around him a group of obedient MPs and other unelected individuals who will meet in private rooms to make decisions on behalf of the country, and then present those decisions to Parliament - without allowing debate.

Such is democracy!

"Please-go!" reminder.

Kalvis Jansons' "Please-Go" petition now has 59,054 signatures.

It seems to have stalled, which is a pity, maybe people have been rather distracted by individual MP's financial affairs.

The petition is here.

It closes on 22nd October 2009.