European parliament election

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Yes Tal, filesharing is equal to pedophilia. I thank you for completely and once and for all destroying any credibility and chance of anyone to take you serious on this topic.

 

Tal, you are beginning to sound like a broken record, when it comes to this subject. We had this discussion before, and it's just not reasonable to compare copyright infringement to real theft, let alone murder or paedophilia.

If I could vote for a piracy party, I might consider it. But I can't, since Holland doesn't have an outspoken pirate party. I checked the list of candidates. Even then, I would have a look at their other party policies. Politics isn't just about the internet.
As for your opinion of the direction of legislation, I'd tend to disagree. Unified european law just makes it easier for corporations to influence lawmaking in all of Europe. Having a single legal system isn't going to make thigs easier for pirates. Imagine if Sweden had to live by the same laws as hardline right-wing countries. The Pirate Bay would have to outsource its servers to outside Europe, meaning slower downloads.
Do you actually think supporters of piracy have the upper hand in the EU legislation system?

 

What he said

The EU doesnt benefit the UK, it just costs us money, if we were land locked that may be a different story.
I wonder how those £ billions would help the NHS instead.

 

Then maybe you should use your vote on of the gazillion politicians who feel like you do?

 

I feel my time would be better spent scratching my arse then voting

 

Hold on. If all the countries argue that is cost money....

Europe is not perfect, but sticking your head in the sand will make it worse. Vote for an anti Europe party and you will see that when they are in power, they will stay in Europe since it is the only option. All those smaall countreis caanot survive in the nopen market. The security from the good old days was made by joining Europe.

When Europe was divided there was war after war after war ending with WW2.

Yes, it needs a lot of new blood. If you do not vote for new blood, the old ones stay and nothing will be different.

No matter how many people vote, the number of seats is fixed for each nation. Putting other people on those seats will get what you want.

Not voting means that you either to lazy, to ignorant to get it, or both.

Sorry for the harsh words.

 

Voting for the European parliament always feels a bit weird to me. Nearly all the candidates are just trying to raise their profile so that they can run in the next Irish election. Aside from the few who are on their way out of Irish politics and view it as a kind of retirement home. It's usually just an excuse for the electorate to give the government a good kicking, which they're sure going to get. Actual European issues don't get raised at all, though with the local elections on at the same time nearly all the focus is on them.

I'll be voting for Fine Gael, the main centre-right party of Ireland. They're a member of the EPP-ED group, though I can't say I know anything about the European parliament groupings.

 

The piece about the electorate giving the powers that be a good kicking is quite apt. The last one and I guess this one as well is almost like a referendum on the current government and a chance for smaller parties with one or two issues to get some air time.

 

Well, not quite. I checked this a few years ago, and while the UK as a state iirc gives more than it gets, UK companies make a fair bit of money in EU projects abroad, not to mention the entire free market deal. Now, admittedly, the UK could get access to the free market even if it was just a member of the EEA, but in that case it would have no political say in the EU, thus no way to represent its interests or at least defend them somewhat. At any rate, said companies also pay taxes, so even on the state level it's more of a "out of one pocket, into the other".

Anyway, I am quite divided on who to vote for. While my sympathies lie around the center, or slightly to the left, my opinion of the Bulgarian socialists could not be lower - frankly, it would be hard to find a more brazen bunch of thieves and conmen if you tried. Actually, no, the "Turkish" MRF party is just as bad, and possibly worse in some ways. The right, or at least what used to be the proper right, has effectively self-imploded, and in its place there is one populist-pseudoliberal (by the continental definition of liberalism)-pseudoconservative party, GERB, which I think is a more of a personality cult. I was never much of a NDSV fan, and while Meglena Kuneva (the BG commissioner) was mostly ok, her party definitely does not deserve a show of appreciation for what it has done at home or abroad. I'm not voting for nationalists come hell or high water, of course. All iin all, there just are no options I really like, so I will probably have to settle for the most tolerable.

You know what, I think I may actually end up voting green, even though I am disagree with their platform on some things such as nuclear energy. On the other hand, I do agree with many things they say, and I think they seem to be marginally less corrupt than most of the others. We will see come this Sunday.

BTW, those who would be interested to see how their opinions measure among the EU parties might want to check http://www.euprofiler.eu/ . It's not perfect, but might help you get a general picture of what parties advocate programs you can get behind.

 

I just did the Slovenian to try to relate a bit to Tal and it turns out my views are pretty exactly the same as the SMS party according to that test.

 

The profiler was interesting and did match my party. The Irish parties ratings seem a bit suspect though, their relative ratings aren't what you would expect.

 

There was actually not a single question about that in the poll.

I would like to point out that this issue is way bigger than file-sharing. That is just a side-show there is nothing that can stop people from doing it so whether it is legar or not is largely irrelevent. The issue is about whether democratic principles should rule online as well or if private entities should be given rights and powers that elsewhere is left solely to the state.

 

No, what I meant is that police authority is given to private corporations to apprehend, judge and sentence people they view as infringing on their rights without the democratically elected government and its police ever being involved. That is what I am talking about amongst other things. About the political power completely caving in to short sighted market interests and abandoning the internet without any democratic oversight. It is however pointless to discuss this with you Tal you are by far the most rigid person I have ever encountered. Your blindfolds are bound on so tight that all you can do is repeat the same mantra: filesharing is stealing, thieves are horrible people and should all burn in hell. I am getting quite convinced that if anyone here have vested interests in this issue it is you, I dont know what you do nowadays but I am starting to think you are a creator of somekind of material and you are utterly convinced that the only thing that holds you back from making billions and billions of dollars are those evil evil pirates who are stealing the money straight from under your nose.

 

And Vice versa, there are many foreign countries with economic interests in the UK. More and more products inside the UK are foreign leading to an increase in imports and (in 2002) the UK was at a deficit to exports, and I have no reason to believe that has changed. Also, the UK has given up sovereignty of its fishing waters leading to suspected over fishing by spanish trawlers.