back to article Gov's e-petition service cost £80k to develop

MPs might be trying their hardest to snub the government's e-petition website, but the Cabinet Office plans to keep the service running for at least the next three years. The leader of the House of Commons confirmed in a written answer to Parliament yesterday that the design and creation of the e-petition site had cost the …

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  1. Tom 15

    Well...

    Well, it's a bit steep, but not too bad considering some of their other projects...

  2. Death_Ninja
    WTF?

    Bit hard to get their heads around I suppose...

    The idea that "the people" should be allowed to steer the country in other way than putting an X on a piece of paper once every four years (and probably not even bothering to read what that X might mean).

    Powerful paid for lobbyists and newspaper editors can choose the agenda, why shouldn't we?

    Oh hang on, that might lead to a wholly different world for MP's... not sure that should be allowed.

    Maybe it could be modified to allow people to pay a bung via paypal when you upvote an idea, perhaps that would help filll the trough for the pigs to feed on.... rekon they'd be happy if that could be made to be.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Good idea but

      "Powerful paid for lobbyists and newspaper editors can choose the agenda, why shouldn't we?"

      They still can with the e-Petitions site.

      Getting public support requires the skills and access that the media has in trumps, for example if a newspaper runs an article on a petition, it will get significantly more votes than one which is being spread by word of mouth alone.

  3. JDX Gold badge

    bargain

    I didn't think they could do anything for under £500k, let alone a fairly decent system (the fact nobody listens to it is a separate story)

  4. Tim of the Win

    Why didn't they just use the e-petitions site developed under labour on the no 10 website? It seemed to work fine then.

    1. Jonathan Carlaw
      Facepalm

      RE: Reuse old site?

      They couldn't use that one because it had the auto "Thanks for your petition, but <Insert PM Name Here> is always right, so we're ignoring you" feature.

      The new one has the much improved "Thanks for your petition, but times are hard, so we're ignoring you" feature...

  5. Pete Spicer

    The only reason they want to keep it running is spin doctoring. They want to make it look like they're listening to the needs and desires of the people, and for that, the amount of money they're spending is cheap.

  6. WonkoTheSane
    Trollface

    What the e-petitions website really needs...

    Is an e-petition directing MPs to debate and act upon e-petitions!

  7. Richard Wharram

    80K

    That's not too bad really.

  8. Drefsab

    hmm gov take my number

    I need a new job, 80k plus 32k a year to build what is really a simple site, ok sure you need to make sure it stands up security wise but any half way decent web developer could build that for a fraction of the cost.

    So then your down to the hosting and maintenance, I certainly could host a sufficiently hi-spec dedicated server, with full resilience, high bandwidth, DDoS mitigation optional offload into cloud should the need ever arise. All that and still have a VERY healthy profit margin on this. Sure this was a small project but if you look at the costing to do it there's so much room for saving while still giving good money to those doing the work. It makes me shudder to think what amount of waste is on the bigger projects.

    Still if they need something like this doing id be happy to do it, it would work as expected, be delivered quicker and be more reliable plus it would set me up to the point I might actually be able to afford a house in this housing market in the UK.

    1. Richard Wharram

      Sure...

      If there's no changes to requirements and everything is specced out in advance. Real projects rarely work this way.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    e-Petitions

    Were a crazy idea that just gave a platform to nutters, then got ignored by MPs first time round - why did anyone think things would change?

    The coalition seem intent on rebranding Labour madness.

    I'd say we need a third party but we already have loads. We just need a sane one.

  10. yoinkster
    Thumb Down

    When a government petitions website wants to know your full address, e-mail address and phone number just to sign a simple petition that'll be ignored, you know you are no longer living in a real democracy.

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