Monday 8 June 2009

European elections - some consolation for Liberals

Not all is doom and gloom on the continent. There is this cheerful posting from Sweden on Liberal Vision. However, while I agree with the Pirate Party's campaign against surveillance of the Internet, I have my doubts about unrestricted filesharing.

In England, one should not write off all Lancastrians as swivel-eyed racists. One of the Conservatives returned in the North-West was Sajjad Karim who, as his name suggests, does not - thankfully - look at all like Nick Griffin. He was a successful and popular (until he switched sides) Liberal Democrat MEP and one wonders how comfortable he will be with the racism and homophobia in some of the parties in the grouping in Brussels which his new colleagues have decided to align themselves with.

While BNP won a county seat in Burnley, in the Euro count Lib Dems topped the poll in Burnley. They had 5422 votes with Labour in second on 4246, Conservatives on 4058, UKIP on 3536, BNP on 3500 and Greens on 1021.

2 comments:

Haribo said...

Thanks for the link, Frank. I also agree with you on filesharing - intellectual property is extremely important in creative industries, especially in poor areas where it offers a great chance for development. This paper outlines the topic quite well.

Also agree with your other points - did the BNP vote in the NW in fact not really increase in absolute numbers? I believe I heard that it was simply percentages that changed.

Delightful photos, btw. Somewhat different to Zone 2 London (!)

Frank Little said...

Thanks, Julian, for making the point I missed: that BNP did not advance in terms of actual numbers.