Sedition

The petition is entitled advise Her Majesty The Queen to enact, through Order-in-Council, that the public or parliamentary advocacy of the dissolution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or the advocacy of a republican form of government for all or part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, be a criminal offence to be classed as Sedition; and that such Sedition by individuals be punishable by fine or imprisonment, and their disqualification from sitting or standing as a Member of both Upper and Lower Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and that legal entities found guilty of the same be liable to fine and the withholding of Public Monies otherwise due and the explanatory notes say

"The United Kingdom's existence is under threat, not from terrorists or climate change, but from those within this country who - for their own political grandeur, prejudice or simple disloyalty to the generations who have built, and died for, this great nation of ours - wish to either see the end of the Constitutional Monarchy which binds this country together, or the Balkanization of the UK into petty, squabbling statelets beholden to the EU. We must stop them, and prevent them using and abusing our tolerance, freedom of speech, and public money, in and out of Parliament."

On the one hand, it's nice to see a petition with accurate spelling and grammar. On the other, it's text so dense it took me three readings to work out what on earth the petitioner's trying to say. Someone call the Plain English Campaign!

What the petitioner wants is for it to be illegal to either advocate independence for any bits of the UK, or to advocate republican rule of any part of the UK. And for this putative crime - "sedition" - to be punishable either by fining or imprisonment, and by banning someone convicted of the crime from being either an MP or a member of the House of Lords.

This is because the petitioner thinks that the greatest threat to the UK comes from those who want a republican government for the UK, or want to split the UK into bits. This is a rather cyclic explanation; s/he doesn't say why s/he thinks this so enormous a threat, he just says that it is.

S/he considers these advocates to - er - be abusing our tolerance and our freedom of speech. Abusing freedom of speech. Because they're such a terrible threat.

I think I actually only know one person who advocates - in this case - Scottish independence. And I'm not actually sure he's real; he's a poster on the Guardian Talk Boards and I have some substantial reason for believing the personality's faked. I don't think I know any Republicans, in the sense of being people who advocate tearing down the monarchy. A few people who dislike it on principle, but no one who actually thinks destroying it would be productive.

Nor have I heard news reports talking about this terrible threat to our existence. In short, I have absolutely no idea why the petitioner's so worried about it. S/he makes the point twice that it is in her/his opinion particularly reprehensible to have anyone in parliament advocating these things. I suppose there might be some backbench MP putting private member's bills about something, or some such?

On the other hand, at least s/he can write precise (if dense) prose.