Petition page locked at 626 signatures until Friday 6th November

Folks,

We have now reached 626 signatures, and have temporarily locked the page after gaining 2 new organic, unpromoted signatures from Northern Ireland while I outline the plan for the next official phase of the campaign, though all my active side projects (such as my summer solstice twilight awareness campaign, spinoff anti-geofencing campaign and a London-based campaign will remain open/active).

This is the 4th time that the page has been locked since we went live at the end of February, our previous closures were as follows in the detailed timeline below:

• ·      August 2nd-12th: Locked at 423 signatures after conclusion of Phase One
• ·      September 17th-27th: Locked at 534 signatures after Phase Two and gaining certain special signatures
• ·      October 4th-8th: Locked at 541 signatures for an unscheduled hiatus due to a lack of promotional funds before Phase 2.5
• ·      November 2nd -6th: Locked at 626 signatures following completion of the phase with several unpromoted signatures + a rare one from Houston, TX, marking our 6th official signature from the US overall. 

We are well ahead of that very petition that overtook us when we got stuck at 409/411 signatures (Emma Tucker’s bin strike petition) which now has around 558 signatures but not completely stagnant (for reference Emma Tucker’s campaign surged ahead through the 480s and reached 490 signatures while we were locked at 423 signatures for our first campaign hiatus). 

The other Birmingham bin strike petition which also hit 400 signatures at roughly the same time as we did (which we overtook at 435 signatures) is now completely stuck at 446 signatures and will chip in to help it reach 450.

Despite my obsession with the “signature race” due to my autism, I do feel for Emma’s cause and I hope they end the long-running bin dispute in Birmingham very soon!

Below is a detailed analysis of our signature race breakdown through the 400s and 500s throughout the summer and autumn of 2026:

• ·      June 18th 2026 – Hit 400 signatures at roughly the same time as Emma Tucker.
• ·      Late June/early July 2026, got stubbornly stuck at 409 and 411 signatures both for a week each, it was roughly here where Emma Tucker’s petition overtook us and picked up speed through the 420s.
• ·      Mid July 2026, grew slowly through the 410s as Emma’s petition surged past 450 signatures.
• ·      August 2nd-12th 2026 – Emma’s petition reached 480 and 490 signatures during our first campaign hiatus locked at 423 signatures
• ·      August 17th 2026 – Emma Tucker’s petition flipped from 499 to 500 signatures, we grew from 423 to 432 that same day.
• ·      September 3rd 2026 – We hit 500 signatures while Emma Tucker’s bin strike petition meanwhile had exactly 519.
• ·      Mid-September 2026 – eclipsed Emma’s total in the 520s just prior to our second 10-day campaign hiatus at 534 signatures.
• ·      October 21st 2026 – Hit 600 signatures, becoming only my second campaign on change.org ever to do so. Emma Tucker’s petition meanwhile had roughly 550 signatures.
• ·      November 1st 2026 – Hit 626 signatures.

There are no competing Orthodox holiday recognition petitions until we hit 795 signatures, and then not again until 921 signatures, so this is where I hope to collect signatures from all 4 of the remaining untouched nations I am still to collect signatures (New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, South Africa and Canada).

Reaching all of these nations is far more important than arbitrary milestones like 700 signatures (though 700 is my end of year target having already cleared 600).

We now have a total of 29 signatures overall from outside the UK; 6 from the US (2 from Texas), 5 from Australia, 3 from Myanmar and several from other (mainly European) locations, my spinoff meta-petition meanwhile has reached 254 signatures with 3 signatures that have originated from Canada, South Africa and California (USA) despite never intending to secure them in the first place (all 3 come from international locations where we have 0 signatures from)!

Two competing Orthodox holiday recognition petitions have which I have overtook have gained an extra signature, the “Save Christmas for All Religions” campaign now has 570 signatures and the petition titled “Recognize the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Christmas and provide academic days off” from 2020 has risen from 305 to 306 signatures. 

The “Grant Orthodox Students January 6 and 7 as holidays” petition which got completely stuck at 272 signatures has risen to 273 thanks to my financial contribution and the 9th grader’s “Orthodox students deserve Orthodox holidays!” petition now has 161 signatures thanks to me – I will hopefully get it to 200 signatures fund dependant!

While the titular goal of my campaign is to fix the date of Easter to the Gregorian date of March 22nd for a special one-off occasion in either the forthcoming years 2043, 2054, 2065 or possibly even 2071 (by which time I will (hopefully) be 78, in which international support is crucial, I also need international support for the campaign’s explicit secondary goal which is to address the lack of official recognition for Orthodox/Coptic holidays in New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, Canada, the United States of America and Australia as well as the United Kingdom/Scotland (countries in bold are where we still have 0 signatures).

I will post my next (82nd) update when we officially unlock the page, and once I reach 89 updates will overtake the total number of updates on my past, successful 1,569 signature campaign (though did not publish my first update on that one until after it hit 500 signatures in April 2024).

It is now November, which is the only month of the year I eat pears!

Ro---- Miles Ash----- (Mr. Easter)