MILLIONS of people worldwide will now find it even easier to join the fight to save Portsmouth naval base – and Royal Hospital Haslar – thanks to Tony Blair.
When the PM launched No 10's online petitions system in November, he didn't expect it to be such a hit with the public.
But already one petition on the Downing Street website, urging the government to scrap its vehicle tracking and road pricing proposals, has been signed by more than 1.4m people.
Now The News is calling for everyone who cares about the navy to make their views clear on the 'E-Petitions' site.
Our Hands off our Base petition calls on the government to safeguard Portsmouth's long-term future 'as a viable, thriving base that continues to play a major role in the support of this country's fleet' at a time when defence chiefs are reviewing the future of the nation's naval bases.
It was posted on the E-petitions site by supporter Quentin Bailey, who hopes it will get a sympathetic response from the homes of other bases under review in Plymouth and Rosyth, Scotland.
He says: 'The leaders and people of Portsmouth have always promoted a "three-base" solution to the navy's support needs, and so it is hoped this e-petition will enable citizens sympathetic to this balanced approach from the other dockyard communities of Devonport and Rosyth to express their support.
'We are also keen to use this platform to enable the many sons, daughters and friends of the city and former naval personnel, wherever in the world they now find themselves, to express their support.'
A separate petition asking the government to stop the closure of Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport has already notched up more than 2,500 signatures.
Peter Edgar, chairman of Save Haslar Task Force, said: 'I would appeal to anyone who has a computer to get online and sign this petition, and ask all of their e-mail contacts and friends to do so as well. We estimate that since we began fighting the closure of Haslar we have been contacted by around 200,000 people – so it would be fantastic if as many of those people as possible could sign this petition.'
Sign the Portsmouth petition at
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/PompeyNavalBaseSign the Haslar petition at
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Save-Haslar