We Are on the Front Page
No, not the front pages of the billionaire captured Sun or Mail, but the front page of the government’s parliamentary petition pages.
We finally got onto their first page out of 93 pages of current parliamentary petitions.
The Media Sovereignty Act petition now has over 29,278 signatures and we are also now number one out of 88 open media petitions on the UK government’s petition website.
We are in the top 20 out of 2,314 open government petitions.
Only 4% of petitions ever pass the 10,000 threshold that triggers a government response.
Which is amazing, considering the billionaire media have imposed a total media blackout on us.
Turkey media billionaires do not promote Christmas! Lol
Great swathes of the petition map showing support across Britain are getting darker and darker, with Wales, the Southwest, Cornwall, Cambridgeshire and the South Coast leading the way.
Some top constituencies include Ceredigion Preseli, Stroud, Cambridge City, Norwich South, Brighton, Central and South Devon.
This is an amazing achievement for our grassroots supporters, having had an unsurprising media blackout by the billionaire owned media.
But There Is Still a Mountain to Climb
We need another 70,721 signatures by September 18th, the cut-off date, to trigger an historic first debate ever on taking back our democracy from the media billionaires.
That means we now just need 2.4 signatures for each person who has already signed.
Hence our fun 4:1 Mycelium Media Billionaire Challenge.
The Mycelium Challenge
The mycelium threads of this campaign have grown out from my idea for it, to the people involved in drafting the Act, Caspar Hughes and Liz Pendleton.
The mycelium then grew out to the current eight volunteers in the Support Group, and from them out to the signatories who have already signed.
We now just need that mycelium growth to grow out from each of those signatories to just four new signatories each to win.
So participating in our 4:1 Mycelium Media Billionaire Challenge is simple.
Please just direct message four of your social media friends and ask them to post this message on their own social media:
“It’s time to break the grip of billionaire-owned media on our democracy. Please sign and share the petition at MediaSovereignty.org/petition. An independent, free press is vital if we’re to confront the climate, nature, poverty and democracy crises!”
And post it yourself also.
Do let us know in the comments if you have done this and what the response from your friends has been.
I tried it with four friends and got lovely yeses from all four.
Four in One Brits Back the Media Sovereignty Act
Our YouGov poll showed a massive 4:1 majority in the UK, from all demographics, back the Media Sovereignty Act measure that ends media billionairism in the UK.
The Mycelium Challenge is how you and we can reach them and ensure their voices are heard, despite the billionaire media blackout.
Ten Ways You Can Help
- Sign and share our petition.
- If you, or somebody you know, knows a major influencer with significant social media followers, please message them asking to post the message above, or a version of it.
- If you know a campaign group or NGO who might post a call to sign our petition on their social media, please ask them.
- If you would like to join our group of social media “super-spreaders”, please get in touch. They post comments on major public figures’ social media threads, including a hot link to the petition.
- Join our Facebook Supporters Group to keep up with the actions being organised: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1072509248669449
- Ask your trade union branch to follow Dorset’s lead. At its latest meeting the Dorset Trades Union Council passed the following motion: “This Dorset Trades Union Council: endorses the Media Sovereignty Act; will circulate the call to endorse this Act to all constituent union branches; and urges constituent union branches to submit their endorsements to their unions’ national conferences.” Big thanks to the amazing activist Giovanna Lewis for steering this motion through, and to Unite Community Dorset, who brought it.
- If you know any big event, concert or festival organisers, where we or you can do a shout out for people to sign the petition before September 18th, that would be brill.
- If you know of any podcaster with a significant following who would be up for doing an interview, or just a plug for the petition before September 18th, that would also be brill.
- Please comment on our posts to help them harness the algorithms. Even just a couple of words, e.g. “Our media” or “Whose media? Our media!”
- Help cover our expenses, including our YouGov poll, by donating to our Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/crowdfunder-for-polling-the-publics-view-on-billi
We Now Need the Big Names
We now need some major NGOs and some major influencers to get behind the call for signatures, to get us over the line.
We have not yet got any NGO brave enough to follow the lead provided by Zack Polanski, Peter Oborne, Clive Lewis MP and Jonathan Porritt in backing the petition campaign.
So our ask today is, do you know any senior NGO leaders or major social media influencers who would have the courage to stand up and be counted, and help us end the Murdocracy which has been so toxic in Britain and which has damaged so many important NGO causes?
Winning the Media Sovereignty Act campaign would help so many NGO causes, across all the climate, nature, poverty, democracy and health crises that we face, by removing the billionaire media veto on what gets attention and support.
If you do, please take the time to contact them personally and encourage them to encourage their supporters to sign the petition before September 18th.
Yes, We Can!
love n courage
Caspar & Donnachadh x
PS: Please sign and share our petition to ban foreign media ownership: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/760061
and help us cover Campaign costs by donating to our Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/crowdfunder-for-polling-the-publics-view-on-billi