I've signed the petition which seems to be dated so yesterday was the last date for signing...
Dual feelings about this petition site.
1. great to be able to sign up to a petition that easily.
2. there are LOADS of petitions there. In the same section is one "provide more land for allotments for people to grow their own vegetables." So the thing gets diluted. I'm all for allotments, but should that really even register on a section devoted to critical issues? My point being that there will be little notice taken of the important issues because of the relative trivia.
The discriminating factor might be if there were to be an ENORMOUS response to the Alzheimer's petition, one that dwarfs the others. Unless that happens, signing the petition will mean pretty much nothing.
Final thought: lack of signatures to a petition might be taken by government to mean that they can forget about the issue.
In days when good souls went around collecting real signatures, the government would be presented with someone carrying boxes of them to Downing Street, with resultant publicity. With the arrival of virtual petitions, everyone and his dog will be putting up all sorts of stuff, and the importance of any uncomfortable ones will be lost.
Conspiracy theory would have me believing that this is the intention.
Final point:
currently this dementia-related petition stands at 12 signatures.
The top petition has 2600 more signatures, and that is "Overturn the National Blood Service (NBS) ban stopping Gay and Bi (G&B) Men giving Blood"
