The British parliament will formally debate a petition later this month from backers wishing to prevent Donald Trump from entering the United Kingdom.
The debate is set for January 18, according to a government announcement Tuesday. The petition, launched after Trump announced his proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States, has garnered over 568,000 signatures to date.
Online petitions like the one targeting Trump are automatically considered for debate by a Petitions Committee if they garner more than 100,000 signatures.
Every time I begin to lament the state of politics in the U.S. I find out just how ridiculous other countries can be and begin to feel better.
It’s one thing to give the more active imaginations on the Internet the illusion that they’re accomplishing something, entirely another to force your legislative body to address them.
Here’s a screen shot of some of the open petitions at whitehouse.gov right now that have met or are close to meeting the 100,000 signature threshold:
The White House has some staffers who write responses to these things, but we don’t trot them to Congress. Our elected, um, representatives waste enough of our time and money, it would be worse if they had to wade through grammar challenges like “Take action to fight secret money immediately x and redeem your failed money in politics legacy” on our dime.
The UK should probably worry more about banning all of the immigrants who get shipped in to start al-Qaeda sleeper cells. I’m pretty sure they’re a bigger threat than Trump.
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