The new Anglo-American 'Special Relationship' ends the "Blair Doctrine"

Its all a little bit too easy in my view to click and sign one of these online petitions without giving much thought to the reason behind the petition.

Trump will come to the UK and he will be well received by the majority of the British public, whatever peoples views on Trump the US is still our key ally and should be treated as such especially given we are leaving the EU.

Does everyone know that the UK is leaving the EU?

Graham said "programs like Big Brother" which describes the entire so-called 'reality' television shows plaguing the airwaves and dumbing-down our culture.

As Andrew says, the petition is not to stop the great man visiting the UK, the wording of the petition reads:

What reality programs get 32m viewers?

"Double standards", you got it in one

And, if the same people were protesting some of those state visits, we would now be hearing tales of "They're off again - haven't they anything better to do".

That is exactly my view, "have these protestors not got anything better to do?"

As do I but the whole currency of petitions has been undermined by their ease of voting - simple click and that's it. But on a more general point, where were the petitioners and banner-waving, pussy-hatted, expletive-chanting rent-an-activists when previous governments invited the President of China, Dictators of Romania and Zimbabwe, the Saudi king and various other despots and dictators for board and lodging at the Palace and hosted by the Queen? Strangely silent.

The alternate petition (178844) that not many people know about, has over 284,000 people petitioning that "Donald Trump should make a state visit to the United Kingdom".

For me, that is an invalid argument. Some people are offended by Jeremy Clarkson saying "N****r" and not as offended when there are stories of tyrants in far-flung countries killing thousands of their own people. I've joined a number of protests in my life, your reasoning means I should join every protest. Even the ones I don't know about.

Like posting on internet forums

Could be - there's 1.8m people signing, there could be 1.8m reasons.

Difference being we do put a teeny weeny bit of thought into what we write before we hit the post button

As do many who sign those petitions.

How can you possibly know that? You're promoting a guess/theory/wish into a statement of fact with no supporting evidence.

As are you and Timmers. So far, we have had people blaming the 32m people watching reality TV (unsubstantiated), people claiming that no thought is required to sign petitions, and people claiming double-standards. Each of these views is as invalid as my statement that many are making a conscious decision to sign the petition. In the same way, people make a conscious decision to vote in an election. We can't question the thought process involved (I vote Tory cos my dad told me to, I vote Tory because I believe in their policies). Either way, it's a vote for the Tories.

Just because a person gets off his bum to walk to a poll booth to vote in an election, it doesn't imply that person has exercised more of a thought process than someone signing an electronic petition, nor a person that has posted a statement on an internet forum.

It does imply a legitimate vote, although postal voting in certain areas of the UK appears to have opened the process to some abuse.

Political Elections are organised as part of the democratic process, open to all eligible members of the public, people vote for one of several options or candidates.

Electronic Political Petitions are generally organised as a protest by an extremist group. Unlike elections there is no alternative vote, people cannot vote against the petition unless they organise a contra-petition. Petitions are cheated, last years 2nd referendum petition had 39,411 people falsely claiming to live in the Vatican State, only God knows how many other votes were cast used false details.

The "silent majority" of the population does not take part in electronic petitions.

Internet forums, such as this, are places where people can discuss a wide range of matters, including politics, in a civilised manner.