UK Politics
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Scotland and the UK did have referendums though. So politicians can call them at least. I don't understand the clown emoji, are you calling me a clown? I think it's a reasonable question given the aformentioned referendum to leave the EU and scotland to remain in the UK, a decision they really bungled.
I wasnt calling you a clown but please show me a referendum which has come from the result of a petition.
Oh in the US here 30 some states have them. It's how we legalized Marijuana here, soon to legalize mushrooms in some states. We took the drawing of districts out of the hands of lawmakers and gave it to an independant commission, we expanded voting rights, what else, we win progressive initiatives, it's just we don't have good progressive candidates, too weak, and not a single white guy amongst them, something is fundamentally broken here politically, but in the late 19th century or so states adopted a lot of this direct democracy to make constitutional amendments, lawmakers can't (in the states it's a constitutional amendment, some it's not, like Florida enfranchised most all felons and lawmakers added restrictions to basically make sure none could vote,) change it without like 3/4 of the legislature.
In my State, Michigan, we have the highest requirement of signatures to get something on the ballot. I forget if it's even 10% of voters in the state. A group usually pays people to gather them, a couple bucks a piece back last I did it for medical marijuana a long time ago, which was awesome I went barhopping with it, everyone wanted to sign it. Anyway they strike non registered voters so you need like 50% more than the minimum to be safe. The firms that do it had a cheating scandal a few years back and these petitions failed to get enough after turning in all of these bogus signatures.
There is still fuckery, we closed the Wolf Hunt in Michigan, we've a few hundred timberwolves back in the upper penninsula, via a petition, and lawmakers passed another version of a wolf hunt with a budget aspect making it unreferendumable. They kept the legalizing weed one off twice through corrupt fuckery in their electoral commission before Washington and Colorado led the way and they let ours through. When we raised the minimum wage in 2008 they used a loophole to pass it through after it was ok'd for the vote with a simple majority in the legislature, but removed the cost of living increase from it, so it was worthless.
Lot's of fuckery abounds but it's our only tool to fight these fuckers where we win.