Virgin vs. First Group e-petition - million monkey edition

Here's an e-petition asking the government to reconsider handing the West Coast franchise to FirstGroup. I've signed.

I did my PhD on direct democracy. It left me very skeptical of arguments about the wisdom of crowds. For FirstGroup I'll make an exception though. This is handing a franchise from one of the best train companies to one of the worst. I cannot help suspecting that the decision was made by either (1) a government desperate for a quick buck or (2) naive bureaucrats applying a set of Very Carefully Designed Criteria, and being gamed by clever lobbyists. That is my evidence-free suspicion, so:

~~~ Vote Now ~~~

~~~ A Million Monkeys Can't Be Wrong! ~~~