With eight days to go until Brexit is legally due to happen and Theresa May set to beg EU leaders for a three-month extension today after MPs humiliatingly rejected her deal twice, it's really no wonder that a new petition to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit has gone viral.
The petition on the official government website, launched on Wednesday evening after the prime minister criticised MPs for rejecting her deal in a damning speech, had racked up more than 700,000 signatures by Thursday morning and was ballooning at a rate of 1,500 a minute, according to reports.
In an almost unbelievable turn of events, the site crashed for a while at around 9am due to over-demand, with a message reading that it was "down for maintenance" and that fed-up Remainers should "please try again later". A House of Commons spokesperson told the Guardian the "technical difficulties" were "caused by a large and sustained load on the system". It has crashed several times since then – so it's worth getting your name down while you can.
The broken website, many (credibly) argued, was a fitting metaphor for the country's crumbling democracy and political system. (We'll take a laugh anywhere we can at this point.)
https://t.co/Z5HcoNKaRK website has crashed on the petition to revoke Article 50. Insert joke on broken British democracy here. pic.twitter.com/wKjKGwSxAi
— Daisy Wyatt (@daisy_wyatt) March 21, 2019
The petition, started by a woman named Margaret Anne Georgiadou, states: "The government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is 'the will of the people'. We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU. A People's Vote may not happen – so vote now."
Remain-supporting celebrities, public figures ad MPS including Hugh Grant, Mary Beard, Professor Brian Cox, Jack Monroe, Tulip Siddiq and David Lammy explained their reasoning for backing the petition and urged their fans and followers to do the same.
I’ve signed. And it looks like every sane person in the country is signing too. National emergency. Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU. - Petitions https://t.co/tPgkaz1soi
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) March 20, 2019
I don’t often sign petitions but I have just signed the “revoke article 50” petition. Do consider it. Https:https://t.co/WKM3acC4mZ
— mary beard (@wmarybeard) March 21, 2019
I’ve signed this petition to revoke A50 and deal with the consequences afterwards - referendum, election, whatever. I have no idea whether these things do any good but after May’s astonishingly irresponsible speech this evening I’ll give anything a go. https://t.co/1XuQW3vuve
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) March 20, 2019
God knows we've tried everything else. 600k signatures and rising by 2k a minute. Sign it, click the link in the email to verify, pass it on. A brief use of collective impotent fury and a tiny squeak into the black holes of our futures, but it's something. https://t.co/k5sWTe0YWv
— Jack Monroe (@BootstrapCook) March 21, 2019
600,000 and counting. Keep going! Show @theresa_may what the public really wants.https://t.co/XuRutGxAzp
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) March 21, 2019
To the thousands of constituents who have already signed this petition:
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) March 21, 2019
Just as I voted against triggering Article 50 in February 2017, I would support any move to immediately revoke our notification.https://t.co/1Nz4VLbvLZ pic.twitter.com/OsiWjOezLj
The petition needed to garner 100,000 signatures in order for it to be considered for debate in parliament – but it remains to be seen if/how MPs will find the time to do so before next Friday.
Journalist Dan Bloom pointed out that the petition was "already the most popular of this parliament" after less than a day of being online. If the number of signatories keeps rising at this rate, there's a good chance it'll surpass the 1.8 m-strong petition to ban Donald Trump's visit to the UK during the last parliament. Here's hoping!
Revoke Article 50 petition is, in a single day, already the most popular of this parliament.
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) March 21, 2019
But it's got a way to go to beat the 1.8m-strong petition to ban Donald Trump (which was during the last Parliament) https://t.co/sVlRN19qhr pic.twitter.com/TMcEcqqslm
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