Peter Roberts, full credit to you. Your road pricing petition has put the issue headfirst into the national media. That’s no small feat.

But let’s still face facts. Had, as one of my Micro Mart colleagues pointed out, these 1.8m chosen to register their opposition to the scheme via pretty much any other method, then there’s no way in hell that a simple 1200 word e-mail from the Prime Minister would be accepted. As it stands, signing a digital petition is perhaps the laziest way to bring an issue to national prominence, and perhaps it’s right that it’s not given quite the same credence as something that involves a little more effort.

After all, as my colleague pointed out, what if 1.8m had written a physical letter? Or been to see their MP? Perhaps sent their MP a personal e-mail? Or stood outside Parliament? An e-mail from Tony then simply wouldn’t have cut it.

Peter Roberts’ petition was a useful and important tool, and likewise using the Internet for levelling out democracy is important and necessary. But it is, and will remain for some time, a blunt instrument, sitting in the shadow of ways of protest that involve something more than ten seconds’ worth of effort.