poutchiz
04-06-2010, 06:25 PM
We've recently heard about the involvement of the Dutch Pirate Party and the Swedish Party in their respective national election...It's the turn of the UK Pirate Party founded last summer to announce its participation to the race and later this week, the list of its candidates....
Written by Ben Jones (http://torrentfreak.com/author/bjones/)on April 02, 2010
The Pirate Party of the UK has released its list of candidates for the forthcoming national elections. The ten candidates, spread across England and Scotland, were announced by the party executives earlier this week, along with a plea for funding to help contest the election.
Recently the Dutch Pirate Party announced (http://torrentfreak.com/dutch-pirate-party-joins-election-race-100308/) they would be participating in their national election on June 9th, but they are not the only ones joining an election race in Europe this spring. The UK Pirate Party is also determined to participate in the general election that will be held no later than June 3rd.
This week, the Pirate Party UK, founded last summer (http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-uk-officially-registered-090811/), has announced (http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/press/releases/2010/mar/30/pirate-party-uk-announces-parliamentary-candidates/) their candidate list. The ten candidates come on the heels of the publication of their manifesto (http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/blog/2010/mar/22/pirate-party-uk-launches-its-2010-election-manifes/), and cover a broad swathe of the country, from London all the way to Scotland.
As with the Swedish party in last summer’s EU elections, not all the candidates are fresh faced youngsters. Quite a few are definitely middle-aged, including party leader Andrew Robinson (41). Despite characterizations such as ‘kids just out for something for free’, they, like all Pirate Parties, will focus on reforming copyright, privacy and patent laws, while preventing the spread of others.
The candidates are:
* Andrew Robinson – Worcester
* Graeme Lambert – Bury North
* Mark Sims – East Ham
* Alexander van Terheyden – Bethnal Green and Bow
* Tim Dobson – Manchester Gorton
* Luke Leighton – South West Surrey
* Shaun Dyer – Leicester West
* Finlay Archibald – Glasgow Central
* David Geraghty – Derby North
* Jack Nunn – constituency to be decided (London area)
TorrentFreak spoke with Bury North candidate Graeme Lambert, who at 18 is the youngest of the party’s candidates and just old enough to vote himself. Bury North’s current MP, Labour’s David Chaytor, made the news recently as he was charged with theft relating to last year’s expenses scandal, which Lambert has seized on in his campaign.
“The Pirate Party UK is a corruption-free political party which the constituents of Bury North deserve after the actions of David Chaytor,” he told us. Lambert is optimistic of a decent showing, although thinks it unlikely that he will win.
“I’m aiming to secure our deposit, which would require 2500 votes, which I am confident that I can achieve. My chances of winning the seat are relative to Ladbrokes odds of 250/1″.
Indeed, bookmakers Ladbrokes have given all the party’s candidates a 250/1 chance of winning, which is worse than most small parties such as the Green, UKIP and Liberal parties, but better than the 500/1 of long-time electoral jokers, the Monster Raving Loony Party.
Lambert is not the only one running for a seat which has strong resonances with the party manifesto. Mark Sims, a 37 year-old IT teacher, is running against Stephen Timms who is responsible for “Digital Britain”. Last year Timms gave the reason for the rushing of Digital Britain as ”the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly upon rights holders”, certain to be a key feature of Sims’ campaign.
Of course, all this comes at a price, and the party is looking for donations and ways to raise money to help pay for the campaigns.
“We’d love to give as many people as possible the opportunity to ‘Vote Pirate’ in the election,” says Peter Brett, the Deputy Campaigns Officer. “Unfortunately, this means we need to raise just over £9000 in addition to the funds previously raised through member subscriptions. This will be just enough for all our candidates to pay their deposits and to have a reasonable amount for publicity materials.”
With the Digital Economy Bill about to be rammed through the Commons, despite protests (http://torrentfreak.com/public-figures-protest-digital-economy-bill-in-open-letter-100320/), will this be enough?
* Source: TorrentFreak (http://torrentfreak.com/uk-pirate-party-announces-2010-election-lineup-100402/)
The Candidates Bio (picked from extraTorrents (http://extratorrent.com/article/393/candidates+announced+by+pirate+party+uk.html))
By EMUworld (http://extratorrent.com/profile/EMUworld/)on Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Sanctioned Candidates are >>>
Andrew Robinson – Worcester
Andrew Robinson (41) is the leader of the Pirate Party UK, and a professional graphic designer. Andrew has long been involved in the pirate movement, and has lead the party since its formation in July 2009. Andrew believes that “politicians need to learn that blindly doing everything they are told by ‘rights holders’ has consequences at the ballot box. Voting pirate is the best way to remind them that we hold some rights too.”
Finlay Archibald – Glasgow Central
A maths student at Strathclyde University, Finlay Archibald (19) has been heavily involved in running the vibrant Scottish branch of the Pirate Party UK. Since joining the party, Finlay has founded the first Pirate student society in the UK. Finlay wants to engage with the people of Glasgow to give them an MP that they can be proud of, something which Labour has proven they cannot provide.
Tim Dobson – Manchester Gorton
Tim Dobson (19) is a systems engineer who helped set up Digital Freedom in Education and Youth, an organisation dedicated to supporting digital rights in education. As a founding member of the Manchester Free Software group, Tim is also heavily involved in the free and open source software movement.
Shaun Dyer – Leicester West
Working as an IT systems auditor, Shaun Dyer (26) has lived in Leicester for almost a decade. As an experienced computer security professional, he is ideally situated to bring to parliament a real understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by Digital Britain.
David Geraghty – Derby North
David Geraghty (19) is a student and avid music fan. He believes in supporting artists without penalising fans, something that the record labels have demonstrated an unwillingness to do. David believes that the music industry does not currently give adequate support to upcoming artists, and wants to prevent the abuse of fans by this industry.
Graeme Lambert – Bury North
A keen local campaigner and sportsman, Graeme Lambert (18) hopes to run a campaign based on transparency after charges were brought against Bury North’s current MP regarding his expenses claims. Announcing his candidacy, Graeme said, “The people of Bury North deserve an honest MP that will represent them properly after the disgraceful actions of David Chaytor, and that person is me.”
Luke Leighton – South West Surrey
Luke Leighton (40) is a free software developer with extensive experience in project management and software engineering. He understands the importance of the increasing impact that the Internet and software are making on our way of life, and is acutely aware of the problems inherent in handing control over to multi-national corporations, through the innocuous right to enforce “intellectual property”.
Jack Nunn – constituency to be announced (London Region)
Jack Nunn is a semi-professional musician who has previously worked with the Pirate Parties internationally and believes that the Pirate movement “is fundamentally a civil rights movement, working to protect the human rights and basic freedoms of individuals”. To this end he has recently contacted the Joint Committee on Human Rights about the impact of the Digital Economy Bill.
Mark Sims – East Ham
As an ICT teacher, Mark Sims (37) has a strong appreciation of the implications of copyright, patents, privacy and freedom of speech in the digital world. Mark feels that this understanding has been poorly demonstrated by Stephen Timms, Minister for Digital Britain, one of his opponents in East Ham.
Alexander van Terheyden – Bethnal Green and Bow
A financial expert with a long history of political campaigning, Alexander van Terheyden (29) has a strong understanding of both the social and economic impacts of copyright and patent law. Mr Van Terheyden wishes to reign-in the “big brother state” and defend civil liberties and freedom of speech.
Regards.
Written by Ben Jones (http://torrentfreak.com/author/bjones/)on April 02, 2010
The Pirate Party of the UK has released its list of candidates for the forthcoming national elections. The ten candidates, spread across England and Scotland, were announced by the party executives earlier this week, along with a plea for funding to help contest the election.
Recently the Dutch Pirate Party announced (http://torrentfreak.com/dutch-pirate-party-joins-election-race-100308/) they would be participating in their national election on June 9th, but they are not the only ones joining an election race in Europe this spring. The UK Pirate Party is also determined to participate in the general election that will be held no later than June 3rd.
This week, the Pirate Party UK, founded last summer (http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-uk-officially-registered-090811/), has announced (http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/press/releases/2010/mar/30/pirate-party-uk-announces-parliamentary-candidates/) their candidate list. The ten candidates come on the heels of the publication of their manifesto (http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/blog/2010/mar/22/pirate-party-uk-launches-its-2010-election-manifes/), and cover a broad swathe of the country, from London all the way to Scotland.
As with the Swedish party in last summer’s EU elections, not all the candidates are fresh faced youngsters. Quite a few are definitely middle-aged, including party leader Andrew Robinson (41). Despite characterizations such as ‘kids just out for something for free’, they, like all Pirate Parties, will focus on reforming copyright, privacy and patent laws, while preventing the spread of others.
The candidates are:
* Andrew Robinson – Worcester
* Graeme Lambert – Bury North
* Mark Sims – East Ham
* Alexander van Terheyden – Bethnal Green and Bow
* Tim Dobson – Manchester Gorton
* Luke Leighton – South West Surrey
* Shaun Dyer – Leicester West
* Finlay Archibald – Glasgow Central
* David Geraghty – Derby North
* Jack Nunn – constituency to be decided (London area)
TorrentFreak spoke with Bury North candidate Graeme Lambert, who at 18 is the youngest of the party’s candidates and just old enough to vote himself. Bury North’s current MP, Labour’s David Chaytor, made the news recently as he was charged with theft relating to last year’s expenses scandal, which Lambert has seized on in his campaign.
“The Pirate Party UK is a corruption-free political party which the constituents of Bury North deserve after the actions of David Chaytor,” he told us. Lambert is optimistic of a decent showing, although thinks it unlikely that he will win.
“I’m aiming to secure our deposit, which would require 2500 votes, which I am confident that I can achieve. My chances of winning the seat are relative to Ladbrokes odds of 250/1″.
Indeed, bookmakers Ladbrokes have given all the party’s candidates a 250/1 chance of winning, which is worse than most small parties such as the Green, UKIP and Liberal parties, but better than the 500/1 of long-time electoral jokers, the Monster Raving Loony Party.
Lambert is not the only one running for a seat which has strong resonances with the party manifesto. Mark Sims, a 37 year-old IT teacher, is running against Stephen Timms who is responsible for “Digital Britain”. Last year Timms gave the reason for the rushing of Digital Britain as ”the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly upon rights holders”, certain to be a key feature of Sims’ campaign.
Of course, all this comes at a price, and the party is looking for donations and ways to raise money to help pay for the campaigns.
“We’d love to give as many people as possible the opportunity to ‘Vote Pirate’ in the election,” says Peter Brett, the Deputy Campaigns Officer. “Unfortunately, this means we need to raise just over £9000 in addition to the funds previously raised through member subscriptions. This will be just enough for all our candidates to pay their deposits and to have a reasonable amount for publicity materials.”
With the Digital Economy Bill about to be rammed through the Commons, despite protests (http://torrentfreak.com/public-figures-protest-digital-economy-bill-in-open-letter-100320/), will this be enough?
* Source: TorrentFreak (http://torrentfreak.com/uk-pirate-party-announces-2010-election-lineup-100402/)
The Candidates Bio (picked from extraTorrents (http://extratorrent.com/article/393/candidates+announced+by+pirate+party+uk.html))
By EMUworld (http://extratorrent.com/profile/EMUworld/)on Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Sanctioned Candidates are >>>
Andrew Robinson – Worcester
Andrew Robinson (41) is the leader of the Pirate Party UK, and a professional graphic designer. Andrew has long been involved in the pirate movement, and has lead the party since its formation in July 2009. Andrew believes that “politicians need to learn that blindly doing everything they are told by ‘rights holders’ has consequences at the ballot box. Voting pirate is the best way to remind them that we hold some rights too.”
Finlay Archibald – Glasgow Central
A maths student at Strathclyde University, Finlay Archibald (19) has been heavily involved in running the vibrant Scottish branch of the Pirate Party UK. Since joining the party, Finlay has founded the first Pirate student society in the UK. Finlay wants to engage with the people of Glasgow to give them an MP that they can be proud of, something which Labour has proven they cannot provide.
Tim Dobson – Manchester Gorton
Tim Dobson (19) is a systems engineer who helped set up Digital Freedom in Education and Youth, an organisation dedicated to supporting digital rights in education. As a founding member of the Manchester Free Software group, Tim is also heavily involved in the free and open source software movement.
Shaun Dyer – Leicester West
Working as an IT systems auditor, Shaun Dyer (26) has lived in Leicester for almost a decade. As an experienced computer security professional, he is ideally situated to bring to parliament a real understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by Digital Britain.
David Geraghty – Derby North
David Geraghty (19) is a student and avid music fan. He believes in supporting artists without penalising fans, something that the record labels have demonstrated an unwillingness to do. David believes that the music industry does not currently give adequate support to upcoming artists, and wants to prevent the abuse of fans by this industry.
Graeme Lambert – Bury North
A keen local campaigner and sportsman, Graeme Lambert (18) hopes to run a campaign based on transparency after charges were brought against Bury North’s current MP regarding his expenses claims. Announcing his candidacy, Graeme said, “The people of Bury North deserve an honest MP that will represent them properly after the disgraceful actions of David Chaytor, and that person is me.”
Luke Leighton – South West Surrey
Luke Leighton (40) is a free software developer with extensive experience in project management and software engineering. He understands the importance of the increasing impact that the Internet and software are making on our way of life, and is acutely aware of the problems inherent in handing control over to multi-national corporations, through the innocuous right to enforce “intellectual property”.
Jack Nunn – constituency to be announced (London Region)
Jack Nunn is a semi-professional musician who has previously worked with the Pirate Parties internationally and believes that the Pirate movement “is fundamentally a civil rights movement, working to protect the human rights and basic freedoms of individuals”. To this end he has recently contacted the Joint Committee on Human Rights about the impact of the Digital Economy Bill.
Mark Sims – East Ham
As an ICT teacher, Mark Sims (37) has a strong appreciation of the implications of copyright, patents, privacy and freedom of speech in the digital world. Mark feels that this understanding has been poorly demonstrated by Stephen Timms, Minister for Digital Britain, one of his opponents in East Ham.
Alexander van Terheyden – Bethnal Green and Bow
A financial expert with a long history of political campaigning, Alexander van Terheyden (29) has a strong understanding of both the social and economic impacts of copyright and patent law. Mr Van Terheyden wishes to reign-in the “big brother state” and defend civil liberties and freedom of speech.
Regards.