The Westminster Parliament has been prompted to develop an e-Petitions system in light of the fact that similar tools are now well established in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. The Number Ten e-Petitions site, too, has proved inspirational although discussions within Westminster about the development of a comparable system have focused on the risks associated with it. This paper describes the momentum towards a Westminster-based e-Petitions system, highlighting the dilemmas that have emerged during discussions about the form it should take: should Westminster try to replicate the popular style of the Number Ten website and risk inundation with Parliamentary graffiti? Or would it be better to develop a system that ties in with Parliamentary processes—and do these processes themselves need to change? We discuss the move towards e-Petitions in the context of broader debates about e-Democracy and its role in revitalising political engagement.
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