Re: An Open Letter On Software Patents and EU Election (fwd)

On the same subject:

  - In Eastern Region (East Anglia, basically) Martin Bell
    is standing as an independent candidate. Bell has said
    (in an email to Matt Freestone, quoted in a comment on
    my web log at, <http://beasts.org/Ufo>) that,

    ``On software patenting I am with the Parliament,
      not the Council of Ministers. My instinct is to side
      with the little platoons not the big battalions.''
    
    Under the d'Hondt electoral system now used for
    elections to the European Parliament in Britain,
    independent candidates are heavily penalised, but
    voting for Martin Bell may be more palatable than
    voting for the UKIP or the Greens and will
    simultaneously send the message that the electoral
    system in use is bloody stupid.

  - If you are considering voting for the UKIP please
    remember that it is a party which advocates complete
    withdrawal from the European Union; as has been
    pointed out before, the British Patent Office would if
    it got its own way, probably want to bring in software
    patents here anyway. They also want an end to
    `unlimited EU immigration', which in practice would
    mean the end of the right of people from this country
    to travel and work anywhere in the EU. They have
    publically advocated Britain holding a position wrt
    the EU similar to Norway's (see <http://beasts.org/Ui>
    and elsewhere), which would mean that this country
    would have to accept much EU legislation without any
    say in it.

    Apart from high-profile racists like Robert
    Kilroy-Silk, the party's most notable candidates are
    disgraced ex-Tory MPs like Piers Merchant (resigned
    after lying over an affair with a 17-year-old girl)
    and John Browne (who was deselected in the
    cash-for-questions scandal). Their chairman, Mike
    Narrass, was involved with various dodgy extreme-right
    outfits in the 1970s; see <http://beasts.org/UK>,
    which coins the slogan `UKIP-- the BNP it's OK to
    like'. Except it isn't, of course.

    If the UKIP do well in this election, I do not believe
    that the first message that EU governments will take
    from their success is `software patents are bad, let's
    get rid of them'. Rather, their reaction is likely to
    be, `what kind of idiots are these, that they should
    elect such cranks?'.

-- 
If you see a long line of rats streaming off of a ship, the correct
assumption is not `Gosh, I bet that's a real nice boat now that those
rats are gone.' (Mike Sphar)