RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

Can anyone think of a single instance where the British population has stopped the government from doing what it wants?

Sure, I can think of examples where the 'shadow' party has, utilizing 'rebel' MPs who refuse to tow the party line, defeated the ruling party; and I can think of examples where the House of Lords has denied the House of Commons permission to do what it wants.

And, there are cases where the government were 'considering' a course of action, only to then state that they had 'stopped considering' that course of action due to public reaction (whether they actually abandon their plan is another matter).

However, the above are all parts of The System 'defeating' other parts of The System; I can't think of a single instance where:

• The government have said: 'we are going to do x'
  
• The population have said 'No!'
  
• The government have actually not done x.

Maybe the government plays politics like computers play chess, by going for the best guaranteed result: given a choice between a plan that is highly likely to result in something highly useful, or a plan that is guaranteed to result in something moderately useful, they'll go for the guaranteed win, knowing that this approach will definitely accumulate them power over time.

Or... is it a concerted effort to push the concept of resistance from our minds: 'the government always get their way; resistance is futile; just shut up, give up, and accept it; don't even consider what you could do to stop them'? Do you think the inner-circle of MPs specifically decline plans on the grounds that it might fail, and if us plebs defeat the government once we'll realize that it can be done and maybe get some funny ideas in our heads...

Now, you can call me overly cynical — you can say that, being democratic, the government will only commit to 'definitely going to do x' once x has achieved majority support in the population — but, I can think of many examples (say, ID cards), where the popular opinion has been against them, but the government has gone ahead and done it anyway; and, seemingly, they've never failed.

Seemingly, resistance really is futile...