Yeah, they both fly modified fighter jets, but they do so in a way that's artful and entertaining, not militaristic.
Well, there you've got the problem. It's actually both - an art form *and* a display of military machinery. Imho, you can't ignore the military aspect just because it's *also* an artform.
I can line up tanks and have them shoot olympic rings in the air - could certainly be done in an artful way, but it's also still a display of military machinery. I could line up soldiers in the stadium and have them shoot "We love you" into the ground. Might pass through as an artful way of expressing this notion, but again, this doesn't negate the military component.
On the other hand, you're at least providing an argument. That's something that's totally lacking on the petition site. The argument on the petition site goes like this:
- "The Red Arrows have been found unsuitable because they are too British". This is not an argument, this is blatant rhetorics and misinformation. The militaristic aspect (which was part of the alleged official statement) is totally neglected.
- After distorting the alleged official statement about the matter, the petitioners provide their own arguments. Let's see, what do they give us ... ah. Two arguments:
a) This is ridiculous

Overturning this decision would be common sense
Now what kind of an argumentation is that supposed to be? These arguments are totally *devoid* of any facts. Actually, I could use the very same arguments, word by word, in a campaign against any of the US presidential hopefuls, against whaling in the Pacific, or against *anything* else. The petitioners don't even *try* to argue, they just stir up hate.
What's really funny, however, is what you find on the net when you look for further information.
First of all, you learn that the basis of the whole uproar is an article in The Sun that is eight months old by now:
WWW LinkNext, you find out that The Sun
itself denounced the article as early as October 2007:
WWW LinkThen, you read
on the homepage of the Red Arrows themselves that "the story is complete rubbish", accompanied by the friendly advice "Don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers!":
WWW LinkThere are lots of other sources that confirm this sequence of events. This is an old story. It was already old before it was even christmas. Of course, that doesn't stop people from *still* falling for a petition even though it does neither quote credible sources, nor provide any reasonable argument whatsoever.
Two interesting tidbits remain:
- More than 200,000 British citizens signed this petition *after* the story had already been resolved (which btw would have been very clear to anybody who at least took the care to perform a Google search before signing).
- Very ironically, it seems to take a German with too much time on his hands (aka me) to show some British that they shouldn't take the claims of their tabloids at face value.