back to article Pirate Party wins seats in Icelandic election

Not content with serving as a catalyst for the global financial crisis, Iceland has elected three members of the Pirate Party to its national Parliament. Iceland's Alþingi (“Althing” in English) is a single-chambered parliament that has met since the tenth century and says it is the world's oldest such legislature. The nation …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What exactly do they think they are going to change?

    These pirate party jokers get a reality check after they get elected and find that they are powerless to do anything because no one else agrees with their POV on life.

    1. ratfox

      Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

      Looks like you don't know much about politics… 3 over 63 seats is plenty enough to influence decisions, if only as part of exchange deals.

    2. LarsG
      Meh

      Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

      I think you are missing the point, they were after all elected so jokers or not, there are people out there who have the democratic right of choice.

      To get those seats a fair few must have voted.

      Remember, when the Icelandic banks failed, they wee bailed out predominantly by Britain and a few others.

      When asked to repay the money they had a referendum and said no.

      That is real democracy, though not the kind of lip service one we have here in th UK.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
        Headmaster

        Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

        Remember, when the Icelandic banks failed, they wee bailed out predominantly by Britain and a few others.

        er, no the banks weren't bailed out by the Brits. What the Brits and the Dutch did was to bail out the savers of the undercapitalised subsidiaries (Icesave, et al.) which they had licensed with the usual light touch and then try and use anti-terrorism legislation to make Iceland pay for the regulatory failure by seizing assets. As such it shouldn't have needed a referendum to refuse demands that were not only contrary to international law but against British law.

        The bailout was led by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Iceland#Icelandic_financial_crisis>IMF</a> and did not directly include Britain which was too busy shovelling money into its own collapsed banks. It is still a financial basket case with a non-tradeable currency for whom some kind of arrangement with the EU is probably inevitable.

        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

          Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

          Well I wouldn't quite describe it like that. it's rather more complicated. I seem to recall the anti-terror legislation was used (or abused - depending on point of view) to stop cash being transferred out of the UK subsidiaries and back to Iceland. Which sort of made sense given that the Icelandic government broke its own loan guarantees on the banks regulated in Iceland to foreigners, but not to locals. Some banks operated here, but under Icelandic government guarantees, others were UK institutions owned by Icelandic parent companies, and thus regulated here and using the UK deposit protection scheme.

          Iceland refused to pay the UK and Dutch government. Which is fair enough as they'd chosen to default. But the UK and Dutch can still ask for it. We could veto them joining the EU.

          As happens, they'd be mad to join the EU, and get forced into the Euro. See Cyprus for details. Given the Troika deliberately decided to destroy the Cypriot economy - that bail-out was designed to fail even under its own terms - and didn't even last a month before unravelling. The correct thing for Cyprus to do to save it's economy is the same, default on all foreign debt and devalue the currency. Unfortunately they're in the Euro, so can't.

          Iceland may be a 'financial basket case', but its economy is growing again, and unemployment and inflation have peaked, even though they've lost their banking industry. Cyprus on the other hand have also lost their banking system, but unemployment is set to rise for years to come, and they'll almost certainly get deflation. Meanwhile no-one knows how much their economy will collapse by, or how long it will last. But their next-door-neighbours Greece are 25% down on their economy and still going, with no end in sight.

      2. Scorchio!!

        Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

        "That is real democracy, though not the kind of lip service one we have here in th UK."

        Just because your pet notions do not get through does not mean that our democracy is a 'lip service' democracy. As Plato himself admitted, democracy is a compromise, the least worst of all options. Not everyone gets what they want, and those who don't claim that there is no democracy. That is, until they live in somewhere like the former USSR, in Belarus, in the new sham democracy of Russia, Iran, China, and such like. That is when they wake up a little, and a great pity too that Red Ken Livingstone and Red Arthur Scargill did not take up the option of living in the USSR whilst it existed, rather than using the UK as their toilet.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

      A coalition survives by a minority of votes, so there could be influence don't you think?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

      Birgitta has experience in politics as she was elected in the previous general election. She led the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative's work with the Alþingi to introduce constitutional protections for human rights regarding the media, especially protecting whistleblowers. Not just WikiLeaks, but in Icelandic society as a whole, where tight interconnections between families and businesses allowed politicians and bankers to run riot in the runup to the crash. A large chunk of her work was agreed with all of the parties in the parliament which is generally more consensual than the nightmare at Westminster.

      1. Scorchio!!

        Re: What exactly do they think they are going to change?

        "A large chunk of her work was agreed with all of the parties in the parliament which is generally more consensual than the nightmare at Westminster."

        The nightmare at Westminster arises from having a population way in excess of 61 millions (and soon to be 70 millions, owing the bizarre desire of ToniBliar to 'spite the right', whilst paying no attention to thee and I, aka the electorate). Such large populations generate opposition of the sort that makes consensus difficult to arrange and manage.

        Iceland's population, according to the CIA's world factbook, is 315,281 (July 2013 est.) ( https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ic.html ). Consensus on such a small scale, in such a homogeneous population, is far easier to arrange; the electorate is smaller, each 'seat' is comprised of fewer people, the culture of Iceland is relatively as contiguous and unbroken as the ethnic/national-geographical boundaries, and so on. Given that we now have a heterogeneous and very dense population it is far more difficult in the UK. The difference could not be more complete, especially since the large government's aims seemed largely oriented at exaggerating these and setting one group against another.

        As an ex soldier I maintain a healthy dislike of politicians and would happily shoot most of the last government, whose misdeeds have left a legacy that may not go before the middle of this century.

  2. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Iceland not wanting to join EU

    already tied in through through the European Economic Area, which affects most aspects,and the Schengen agreement. The fish and finance will be the sticky issue not links to disputed file hosting.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Iceland not wanting to join EU

      Given what's happened to UK fish-stocks - and what's happening to the Euro - they'd be mad to join the EU.

  3. Thomas 4

    It's still better than Iceland's back up political model

    ...where everyone kills everyone else by flying around in spaceships.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: It's still better than Iceland's back up political model

      EVE appears to have been what they based their banking industry on. Which didn't turn out too well...

  4. Nissemus

    Eh?

    "Both wish to stop Iceland's entry to the European Union, which could excite the Pirate Party's support given its policies emphasise personal liberty."

    I don't know what this means.

    1. teebie

      Re: Eh?

      It's clear - either membership of the EU enhances personal liberty, or it inhibits it, and the author thinks it's obvious which is the case.

      OK, not clear

  5. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Three MPs to free MP3s

    sorry - had to register my approval of such a succinct strapline

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, easy downloads?

    Can one log into the Pirate Bay Iceland URL and be free to download at heart's desire?

    Kindly enlighten us more.

  7. Mr_Blister
    Coat

    So the Pirate Party has gone to Iceland and had its assets frozen. Maybe their Magnet files were attracted to the pole as well!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    The register's persistent right wing rhetoric is beginning to really piss me off, once apon a time it was a tech magazine that presented balanced-ish tech news, not one more rag full of spin to add to the existing pile of right wing shit to help pretend this is how most of the population thinks in the west to push people rightwards.

  9. Anonymous C0ward
    Pirate

    I have a VPS there.

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