UKIP Policies : Direct Democracy & Referenda

According to the UK Independence Party website UKIP will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:

UKIP would introduce ‘Direct Democracy’ whereby a fixed proportion of the electorate, depending on the nature of the constituency (and normally 5%), sign a petition demanding a referendum on any major issue that concerns them, within a 6 month period for national petitions and 3 months for local petitions, shall be granted a referendum. It should be noted the Number 10 online petition against satellite-based national road pricing attracted 1.8 million signatures; just under 4% of the electorate. Online petitions with safeguards on identities would be allowable.

The UK Independence Party is not afraid of the British people and public opinion, and will extend direct elections and direct democratic decision making in the following ways:

National and Local Referenda on major items of concern
Directly elected local County Police Boards, and directly elected Chief Constables where desired
Directly elected local Health Boards
Local referenda on large scale or controversial planning schemes, in place of remote appeals
Directly elected Mayors, where there is local support for them

I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Independence Party’s Direct Democracy & Referenda policies in the comments below?