Retired Lecturer Margaret Georgiadou’s online petition to ‘Revoke Article 50′ has attracted almost six million signatures so far, making it the most popular petition on the government’s petitions website. Over 45 minutes I watched it attract 85661 more supporters. That’s just under 32 new votes every second.
Georgiadou’s petition has not made her universally popular however. She has received threatening phone calls and because her Facebook account had been hacked, has been forced to permanently delete it.
When she tweeted about this she received over 2000 posts in support. The first one, from Simon Ubdsdel read: “You should be proud of is being what you have started. But please be safe.”
The petition has drawn a lot of coverage from the press, and comments from readers. The first post below an Evening Standard article reads: “Who cares what some foreigners petition says. The British people VOTED out, and that’s what the government in a democracy should be doing, so get on with it.”
In a later post someone argues that Brexit supporters who now know what Brexit means have changed their minds and want a second referendum. People have also commented that their posts have been removed, though this one doesn’t make it clear what side they are on.
“Two of my comments have been deleted. Apparently. A comment can be temporarily removed for review by the moderators even if it just contains a word that the site’s program has flagged. Don’t know what the magic word was in my deleted post, but I’m sure after my comment is reviewed it will be restored, Like is said before, it was very tame.” – Stan Hilton
Inevitably lots of comments are from people who are confused about what the implications of revoking the article are. Some think they are voting for a delay so that people have time to think about the future. But according to The Atlantic the effect on Brexit is clear:
“This is not about extending the Article 50 process, to extend the Brexit transition period beyond March 2019. That would still require agreement from the EU member states. Rather a notification revoking Article 50 means not leaving the EU at all. In other words, it would stop Brexit.”
Therefore if the petition had any consequences – which it won’t – it would sweep the votes of the 17 and a half million people who voted to leave the EU under the carpet.
But a recent YouGov/People’s Vote survey suggests that a lot more people now want to remain than to leave. So however undemocratic some people accuse this petition of being, perhaps in fact it represents the people.