With more than 1.8 million signatures, a petition to stop President Trump from coming to the UK for a full state visit has dominated the headlines. But do political petitions really work? paul Francis looks at the impact of online social activism on our p

trary view.

Dover businessman Alan Bown set up his own petition to show that not everyone wanted to ban Trump from the UK.

“The initial petition had been launched to prevent him from coming, disinviting him, and I felt that the opposite point of view should be felt so that it’s known that not all of us decry free speech,” he said.

Within a few days, it had passed the 200,000 mark.

Richard Scase, business guru and emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent says petitions are not just keyboard warriors venting their outrage.

“Social media has been the major driver and has had a huge impact,” he said. “Citizens feel much more empowered than they did in the past. The communications networks are no longer controlled by the media. We saw this in the referendum: people communicate with each other; ideas get transmitted. Popular protest is much easier to develop and encourage to develop and cultivate than it was 10 years ago.”

Perhaps it is this ease that explains why petitions remain a popular tool to get attention to a cause. The change.org website boasts that at any one time 159 million people across the world are taking action on different causes and there is a lengthy list of victories.

But with such huge numbers, it is not starting a petition that is the challenge, it is working out how best to get your voice heard above many others.