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

Hi Chris, on Thu, 3 Jun 2004 21:07:01 +0100 you wrote:

> [Martin Bell has said...]
>     ``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.''

Yes, he replied quickly and said a similar thing to me when I asked. At
least in our region, it seems that Bell is providing a credible
alternative. The only danger I suppose is that, as with any election, the
"minority vote" will get diluted and spread across him, the other
independent and the various other bands of loons we have round here
standing as candidates. But that's no reason to be put off; I think it
would be excellent if he became an MEP for the region.
     
>   - If you are considering voting for the UKIP please
>     remember that it is a party which advocates complete
>     withdrawal from the European Union;
>     <snip>They also want an end to
>     `unlimited EU immigration', 

Whilst all this is true, and it's also worth noting that their TV advert
(available on their website in some god-forsaken format) is crass,
exploitative and scaremongering, I don't think these things should
*necessarily* put those with an anti-swpat mindset off voting for them in
the absence of a more palatable alternative, purely because even if the
whole country voted UKIP, they're not realistically going to be able to do
anything practical about their more controversial policies at a European
level. So they would/will end up merely acting as some kind of much-needed
balance in the EP. (Voting for them at a national level might well be a
different matter though).

On the software patents issue in particular, given that all 3 main parties
in the UK are screwing over their own voters, the UK desperately needs
some balance. Alan Cox is probably right to largely ignore the particular
politics of UKIP, because once you get over all the "immigration"
scaremongering, they do appear to have a healthy scepticism of the EU,
they do seem to have a reasonable chance of getting a few extra MEPs and
every vote will count on the swpat vote later in the year (and no doubt in
the future, with the next piece of stupidity that the unelected idiots at
the European Commission come up with). I may not be a huge fan of the
UKIP, but I'd rather have some UKIP people with slightly dodgy views that
they can't do much about providing some healthy obstruction to stupid EU
legislation, than some clueless/arrogant/ignorant/stupid (delete as
applicable) Labour/Conservative/Liberal MEPs voting against the wishes of
their constituents, just because they were duped into doing so, or some
self-declared party "expert" told them to.


But let's not forget Alan's other suggestion - the Greens. To anyone who
has only taken a passing interest, the Greens in the European Parliament
are considerably more substantial in number and therefore carry more
weight than they do in the UK political scene, and have been exemplary on
the software patents issue - they have been the driving force behind
promoting and tabling the amendments required to avoid unlimited
patentability, and they have provided a huge amount of positive support
and resources to anti-patent campaigners. So on that particular issue at
least they deserve full support and are therefore probably a good choice,
particularly if you're not keen on the UKIP. 


Tim