Following the record-breaking success of last week’s petition to the Government to revoke Article 50, the petitions website has crashed again.

Petitioner Ian Napton said, “I was caught up in the euphoria of so many millions of people venting against Brexit and thought I’d start a petition of my own.”

The petition states, “With apologies to the people of New Zealand, let’s swap our Prime Minister for Jacinda Ardern.”

Napton’s petition attracted the required 100,000 signatures to command Parliamentary consideration in a little under five hours and the website frequently crashed under the weight of demand. By the end of the day, it was approaching nine million signatures and by the end of day two, it had broken through twenty million. News of its record-breaking popularity has not been well received in New Zealand.

Asked if he really wanted to swap Prime Ministers or whether this was just a prank, Napton said, “Oh yes, of course I want to swap. Jacinda Ardern led her country impeccably with the whole world looking on after after the dreadful Christchurch shooting. Above all, she seems a truly decent person. We’ve got Theresa May. Remind me how she handled Grenfell and what the nation thinks of her handling of Brexit.”

Parliament must give consideration to the petition. “We’ll allocate time to this very soon,” said Speaker Bercow, “but we thought we’d give it a couple more days to see if it reaches fifty million. It’s well on course.”

A spokesman for Mrs May’s husband denied that he had more than one email account.

The Origins of the Jacinda Ardern story

This is another story from Colin. He, like many of us, is appalled by mass shootings. However, he was also impressed by the way the New Zealand Prime Minister responded to the crisis. This seemed to contrast with the very public failings of our own PM.

That this happened when the Revoke Article 50 Petition was incredibly popular was serendipitous. Finding the photo to accompany the story was a happy coincidence.

Jacinda Ardern has received worldwide praise for handling of the crisis. The Independent reported on it. here; https://www.independent.co.uk/Jacinda Ardern

Our own coverage of mass shootings has been a little less reverential; https://atomic-temporary-148424745.wpcomstaging.com/2019/02/17mass shooting template