On Thursday we all have the chance, together with our families, friends and all those we can influence to vote in the European Election. Look here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mikepitt/cambridge_politics/euro04.html Scroll down to the table that shows the previous results. It seems to me that if we made a concerted effort despite our own political convictions to vote UKIP we may be able to unseat the sitting Lib Dem! This will send message, very painful for the man, who will lose an income of about £75000 > £100000 and expenses, to the man, and the party, that due to their voting against our interests in the last parliament we have decided to vote against their interests in this election. This can be rammed home if he does get unseated by sending him, or the Lib Dems office an email telling them that those against Software patents worked to unseat a Candidate of the party that voted the 'wrong way'! Its brutal and unkind, but it will let Politicians know that we are a force to be reckoned with! -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)
John Seago wrote:
On Thursday we all have the chance, together with our families, friends and all those we can influence to vote in the European Election.
Look here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mikepitt/cambridge_politics/euro04.html Scroll down to the table that shows the previous results. It seems to me that if we made a concerted effort despite our own political convictions to vote UKIP we may be able to unseat the sitting Lib Dem!
But UKIP is a single issue group. If you don't agree with that single issue then you shouldn't vote for them. In the grand scheme of things, the UK withdrawing from Europe is more important than software patents (*dons flame proof trousers*). People shouldn't vote for UKIP just because they agree with *one* of their policies.
This will send message, very painful for the man, who will lose an income of about £75000 > £100000 and expenses, to the man, and the party, that due to their voting against our interests in the last parliament we have decided to vote against their interests in this election.
This can be rammed home if he does get unseated by sending him, or the Lib Dems office an email telling them that those against Software patents worked to unseat a Candidate of the party that voted the 'wrong way'!
I'm sorry, but unless they election was *very* close, he's not going to care at all. How many people would vote against him because of patents? <100? <50? It's an important issue, but a minor one to most voters.
Its brutal and unkind, but it will let Politicians know that we are a force to be reckoned with!
*cough* BenE
On 2004-06-08 22:55:45 +0100 John Seago <johnseago@two-ravens.org.uk> wrote:
if we made a concerted effort despite our own political convictions to vote UKIP we may be able to unseat the sitting Lib Dem!
Even if you can't bring yourself to vote UKIP, if parties lose votes because of supporting more patents and copyright enforcements, it will send a message. Hell, *asking the questions* of some candidates has sent a message and been productive already, getting politicians to think more than after election, when they use their votes to support their party's "national brain". Some we may still disagree with, but at least they've thought. See which candidates sent thoughtful replies in the URL at the end. I've tried to identify policy office quoting.
Its brutal and unkind, but it will let Politicians know that we are a force to be reckoned with!
Aye, but votes must be cast. Vote on Thursday! -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing Help hack the EuroParl! http://mjr.towers.org.uk/proj/eurovote/
On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 10:55:45PM +0100, John Seago wrote:
On Thursday we all have the chance, together with our families, friends and all those we can influence to vote in the European Election.
Look here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mikepitt/cambridge_politics/euro04.html Scroll down to the table that shows the previous results. It seems to me that if we made a concerted effort despite our own political convictions to vote UKIP we may be able to unseat the sitting Lib Dem!
No, error, bad! wrong! European Parliament elections (AIUI) use a proportional representation system and going by the results of the last election is possibly not a good idea. So far I have read that many of the main parties (especially Conservatives and Labour) are losing votes to minority parties, so what everyone *must* do is vote, as every vote for a party that isn't a main party means you make their share of the vote smaller, at least then even votes for something scary like the BNP will give the main parties less seats. So like Alan Cox said vote Green or UKIP (personally I feel the UKIP has more against it than for it) or one of the other minority parties, I don't suppose anyone knows Martin Bells position on software patents? Thanks Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem
On Wed, Jun 09, 2004 at 10:29:06AM +0100, adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
it than for it) or one of the other minority parties, I don't suppose anyone knows Martin Bells position on software patents?
Ok, I just phoned Martin Bell and spoke with him for a bit (bad phone line though so i had to ask "sorry, what, could you repeate that please", he reiterated what the comments he gave to MJRs Eurovote project "I am in favour of the little platoons over the big battalions". He told me that he was well informed on the issue and that he thought that if the council kept going the way it had been then it wasn't a good thing, and I asked him if he would take part in votes on the issue and he said that he would. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem
On Wed, 2004-06-09 at 17:29, adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
No, error, bad! wrong! European Parliament elections (AIUI) use a proportional representation system and going by the results of the last election is possibly not a good idea.
It's a regional lists system. The regions contain between 3 and 8 (I think) MEPs. They're small enough for tactical considerations to still matter. Alex -- Alex Macfie, Taipei, Taiwan ROC email <alex@cgce.net> Tel: +886 955 857477 <http://www.cgce.net/> STOP SOFTWARE PATENTS IN EUROPE <http://swpat.ffii.org/>
On Fri, Jun 11, 2004 at 10:28:54AM +0800, Alex Macfie wrote:
On Wed, 2004-06-09 at 17:29, adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
No, error, bad! wrong! European Parliament elections (AIUI) use a proportional representation system and going by the results of the last election is possibly not a good idea.
It's a regional lists system. The regions contain between 3 and 8 (I think) MEPs. They're small enough for tactical considerations to still matter.
Yes, but they are proportional representation within each of those regions, for us in East Anglia we have either 7 or 8 MEPs I can't recall right now. Either way I was not going to vote for UKIP as that would send the wrong message overall, at least in East Anglia we had a good spread of anti-swpat parties so most people could probably find one that they wanted to vote for out of UKIP the Greens and Martin Bell and it would also be hard to vote tactically seeing how this time round the elections are quite unpredictable due to the amount of people who are talking about not voting for either Labour or Conservative. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem
participants (5)
-
adam＠thebowery.co.uk -
Alex Macfie -
BenEBoy -
John Seago -
MJ Ray