'We should be proud to live in a country where our electorate can express discontent and our politicians listen.'

Jamie Stone is the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and the chair of the House of Commons Petitions Committee.

Somewhere or other there is an old photograph of Charles Kennedy and me delivering a petition to the Treasury. 

The petition was for a fair deal on the cost of motor fuel in the Highlands where we were paying far more at the pumps to run our vehicles than other parts of the country. We’d spent a lot of time and trouble gathering the signatures, and when we arrived at the Treasury the man at the front door took the box and quickly shut the door in our faces. Rather anticlimactic.

As we walked away, Charles – always a man for a quip – said: “Well.. I hope that’s not going into the nearest bin.”

I fear it did just that. 

Unsurprisingly, we heard nothing more. That reception, for a petition signed in all seriousness. did nothing for my faith that public participation had much impact on the government of the day. 

Fast forward to 2017, when I was busy dealing with the chores of an elected councillor’s life. Potholes, rubbish collection, housing improvements, that kind of thing… When suddenly the music changed and I found myself in Westminster. 

Seven years (and another two general elections) later, I was even further astonished to find myself elected unopposed by the House of Commons to be the Chair of the Petitions Select Committee. This really was a ‘pinch yourself’ experience, and the moment where everything was suddenly very different. Entirely contrary to the disillusioned young man who once walked down Whitehall with a box of signatures, I am now a servant of the House – with more faith than ever in our avenues of civic engagement. 

That is why I was on my feet last week opening the debate on Petition 700143 calling for another general election.

At 3.1 million signatures, this is one heck of a petition. When I saw the number of MPs, including some well-known faces, who turned up to speak in the debate I knew that my life had changed dramatically compared to what it was seven and a half years ago. The petition had been launched by Mr Michael Westwood, who lives in the Black Country not far from Birmingham. A publican by trade, when I met him before the debate he admitted that he was surprised by the way the petition had taken off – indeed, gone viral! 

As the debate took place and I spoke my opening words, one other thing tugged at the back of my mind. It was that the debates in Westminster Hall on e-petitions submitted to the Committee are one of the most watched online of all the debates that take place in Westminster. Not good for the nerves I must say, so I tried not to think of all those people watching through screens during my speech. But when it was all over and I sat down, I reflected that without a shadow of doubt this was the biggest audience I would probably ever have in my political career.

More importantly, this debate was a way for Michael Westwood and his three million signatories to express their dissatisfaction with the first six months of the new Labour Government. It is important to see this as a success, regardless of whether one agrees with the petition or not. We should be proud to live in a country where our electorate can express discontent and our politicians listen. 

That said, a petition such as this cannot possibly trigger a general election. That is the prerogative of the Prime Minister, with the permission of the Sovereign. In reality, Keir Starmer could do such a thing tomorrow if he so wished. But methinks this is unlikely anytime soon… 

This incontestable verdict did not quell the fiery nature of the debate. Critics of the Government spoke up, and loudly too. And opposite them defenders of the Government made their opinions equally clear. 

Going by the emails I received after the debate, it is clear that those looking in had paid close attention – with a huge number tuning in to watch or reading the transcript afterwards.

This takes me to where I began, the petition tossed straight into the bin of the Treasury 25 years ago could not stand in starker contrast to e-petition 700143 – a petition discussed and debated right out in the open and watched all over the UK. 

Times have clearly changed. I believe that the current petitions system in the House of Commons, which was only introduced in 2015, empowers people who sign the petition and gives them the assurance that their concerns mean something. This takes me to my final point – what happened last week must be good for our democracy and people’s faith in it. Indeed, that is the tone of the reaction I have been receiving, with many expressing their gratitude for a political system in which politicians sit up and listen when they are called to by the public. At the end of the day, we all answer to the electorate, and it will only ever serve the Government well to keep that in mind. 

In my closing remarks, I pointed out that a debate of this kind – one where opinions are exchanged in a forthright manner – is part and parcel of the way we do democracy in this country. I also suggested to the gathered MPs that a debate of this type would not be tolerated in the Russian Duma or – perish the thought – the Pyongyang ‘parliament’ in North Korea. 

As I caught the train home at the end of this week, I reflected that my life really had changed in a big way and was heartened to conclude that – despite the hardships we all encounter – I’m inclined to believe that our democracy is still very much alive and well.

Image credit: Diliff – Creative Commons

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