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The Pirate Party Now the Biggest Party In Iceland
jrepin writes The Pirate Party now measures as the largest political party in Iceland, according to a new servey from the Icelandic market and research company MMR which regularly surveyes the support for the political parties in Iceland. Support for political parties and the government was surveyed in the period between the 13thand 18th of March. The results show that The Pirate Party has gained increased support. Now, support for The Pirate Party totals 23.9%, compared to their previous 12.8% in the last MMR survey.
feel free to seed bjork torrents guilt free
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
...to air drop some Freedom on those dirty pirates.
/duck
/run
You can be the largest political party there and still have your membership fit inside a Ford Transit van without violating any seatbelt laws.
If they manage to have a sane copyright law not too far in the future, that may be quite an economic advantage.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The last time, Iceland waged war (the Cod Wars), it prevailed - despite not having a fleet nor an army. Be careful!
The party has not officially taken a position in favour of or against Iceland's accession to the European Union. The party has however concluded the following in a party policy on the European Union:[3] Iceland must never become a member of the European Union unless the membership agreement is put to a referendum after having been presented to the nation in an impartial manner. Should Iceland join the European Union, the country shall be a single constituency in elections to the European Parliament. Should Iceland join the European Union, Icelandic shall be one of its official languages. If negotiations on the accession of Iceland to the European Union halt, or membership is rejected by either party, a review of the agreement on the European Economic Area must be sought, to better ensure Iceland's self-determination. It is unacceptable that Iceland need to take up large part of European legislation through a business agreement without getting representatives or audience.
and the one you were not expecting
Edward Snowden: On 4 July 2013 a bill was introduced in parliament that would, if passed, immediately grant Edward Snowden Icelandic citizenship
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
And start accepting sane copyright laws. Increased production will also more than compensate for the sanctions the US will impose, as long as they can avoid a US invasion to "liberate" the country.
They have weapons of ice destruction there you know.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
We need a US Pirate Party. They're kind of a one-platform party, but at least it seems to be a rational platform that you can actually explain to someone. I'm guessing the average Pirate Party candidate is much less likely to be a hypocrite than some of the other parties' candidates.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Before you go blaming the young, perhaps you should look around at the state of the world and think long and hard about what the old have been doing with it for generations.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Iceland has been the home of Vikings for centuries, so not much has changed.
It's no coincidence that the first Pirate Party was founded in Skandinavia...
Iceland is a country of 323.000 people, of which some 200.000 live in the Reykjavik metro area.
Iceland's electorate is some 235.000 people (of which some 63% actually show up).
Reykjavik's electorate is some 85.000 people (of which some 66-75% actually show up) of which some 20.000 voted for the Best Party in 2010.
Which was a "member of the International Pirate Party, but not associated with Pirate Party Iceland".
They elected a comedian and a talkshow host JÃn Gnarr in 2010, and have dissolved the party after that one term in the office.
Among the political promises were the following: "a polar bear for the city's petting zoo; palm trees for its icy waterfront; free towels at its swimming pools; a rearrangement of statues; and a commitment to "sustainable transparency."
Their political platform was not much different, promising open corruption, canceling all debts, free bus rides and free dental - constantly making a point that they are just making promises, with no plan of keeping them.
The president of Iceland has been in office since 1996. They keep voting him in.
Number of votes he won last time - 84.036.
His major opponent, a journalist with the national TV service, won 52.795 votes.
It is basically a large town.
In a geographically favorable place, just off the coast of everything, with free geo-thermal energy.
Those who do vote are voting by inertia or by treating politics as a joke.
It's just the same as everywhere else in the western world, only colder, smaller and with more volcanoes and less army.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Interesting interview with Birgitta Jonsdottir member of Parliament for Pirate Party in Iceland about potentially becoming Prime Minister, in English at Icelandic news website: http://www.mbl.is/english/poli...
Shouldn't be surprising that they wouldn't form a coalition with the Independence or Progress parties.
The Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) is basically Icelandic Republicans. It's too good of an analogy not to make. If Republicans in the US like it, they like it. They're maybe not as hard on the social conservatism, but economic, yeah, they can party with the best of them in the US Republican Party. Anti-EU.
The Progress Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn)... this is a beast that you really aren't familiar with in the US. Sometimes they're referred to as right-populism, but really I think the best way to describe them is the "Idiot Party". Generally they do terrible in the polls right up until a couple weeks before the election, when they come out with some Big, Super Plan, which basically amounts to "We're going to give you tons of money, and you're never going to have to pay for it, like ,not EVERS!" There's so little time before the election that idiots get enough time to hear about it but not enough time to hear about how utterly terrible it is, and Framsóknarflokkurinn surges in the polls... then their support quickly collapses after the election, but who cares about it then? They're in government and can enrich themselves and their friends to their heart's content. Anti-EU.
The Pirates on the other hand could easily form a coalition with a number of other parties:
Samfylkingin (not sure what the English translation for them usually is)... as much as Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn is Iceland's Republicans, these people are really Iceland's democrats: left-center pragmatists. But then again, the left in Iceland is further left than the US. Pro-EU.
Left Greens (Vinstri Grænir): Yeah, there's also a Right Greens, but they're a small party, no need to talk about them. The Left Greens are a traditional Green Party... Left-Idealists. Anti-EU.
Bright Future (Björt Framtíð): Relatively new party. They're another leftist party, with some stances matching with Samfylkingin but others matching the Left Greens. Pro-EU.
The Pirates have no pro or anti EU stance, except that people should get to vote on it. They're very much not happy with our current government's promise breaking and lawbreaking on this front. But the membership is mixed on how they'd actually vote - they just want to get a vote.
I think the Pirates would form a great part of any potential leftist coalition. They have a lot of policy blind spots where they try to avoid taking stances, but they're very hardcore on certain issues that really need an advocate.
"TAMS shouldn't be destroyed. They should just tag us before releasing us into the wild." -- Maeglin