The problem with e-petitions (and fuel price mechanisms)…

Newsman Henry Louis Mencken had a barely disguised (but eloquent) contempt for representative democracy; deep down he felt it added up to little more than mob rule. Mencken was a witty Whiggish rogue, whose position was as far from the Burkean tradition as it is possible to imagine. The UK Government’s e-petition site has been good at spudding up controversial issues and forcing them on to the political if not the parliamentary agenda. Guido’s spat with the UK Labour MP …

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