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8th April 2010 13:00 | by Graeme Lambert
We'd like to thank all of the people that have kindly donated money to our campaign funds for the General Election. At the time of putting our progress bar online yesterday, we had £300 donated. At the time of writing this blog, we have £2513.98, which is 5 candidate's deposits paid for or 3 constituency mailouts paid for.
This is fantastic progress in such a short space of time! We really do need the donations to keep on coming, though. We need a further £4,500 to fund our candidates with mailouts and deposits, and anything more than that will go towards campaign funds for each candidate.
Last night, the Digital Economy Bill was passed through the Commons and will soon become the Digital Economy Act. The Pirate Party UK strongly opposes the Bill/Act and will continue to do so when it becomes UK law. We are the only political party in the country that publicly opposes it.
If you want to make a big difference and you can't vote for our candidates, please donate whatever you can afford so that we have the best chance possible to get a Pirate Party UK MP out of next month's General Election. If you live near one of our target constituencies, why not help with our campaign, by getting involved with canvassing or publicity?You can visit our donation page to make a contribution.
Graeme Lambert is the Pirate Party PPC for Bury North.
5 comments
As for persuading Pirates to vote for Greens, well that's up to them. Like I said, our supporters come from all political backgrounds. One of our candidates has actually been a PPC before -- for the Tories. Others I would best describe as socialist. Most Pirates I speak to seem to associate most with the Lib Dems. Many, I am sure, would also vote for the Greens if no Pirate candidate were available.
here's our review of green policies thread:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1697&p=12854#p12854
docrichard wrote: Please enlighten me as to why you need your own party, when the Greens passed a full endorsement of your aims? OK, OK, we must have left something out. Some imperfection. So sorry.
Erm... oh... erm... hmmm... oh... what was the reason we went to the trouble to set up a party again? Hmmm... oh.... ermm... Oh YES! I remember! It was because we didn't agree with other parties. They're full of people who are so... hmmm... what's the word?... condescending about our deep and sincerely-held beliefs.
The problem with Green Party policies is not what they leave out. The problem is what they put in - loads and loads and loads of stuff without any concern for how contradictory so much of it is. But hey, if you only read about the policies you like, and don't read about the policies you don't like, I suppose the Green Party policies might sound pretty good...
I have voted Green in the past, and might do again. Either that, or Liberal Democrat, most likely. I would really really prefer to vote Pirate, but it isn't possible for me this time. Green policies on our issues are pretty much satisfactory I think, the issue I have is with all the other policy areas, where I'm in agreement only with some policies but set against others. And I'm sure there are other Pirates who would not want to vote Green at all.
If I lived in a constituency with no Pirate candidate, but with other candidates (of whatever party) who understand our issues, I'd vote for them, even if they didn't fully endorse Pirate policies it can only be good to have more MPs than at present who understand these. So for example, if I lived in West Bromwich East, I'd vote for Tom Watson, and if I still lived in Cambridge I'd vote for Julian Huppert.
I also really hope that we do not expand our official policy base in the foreseeable future, and stay tightly focussed. I regard one of our strengths as being that we are at core a civil liberties party, committed to fundamental freedoms of speech, expression, and individual privacy, and that on all other areas we encourage our candidates (and if elected, our MPs) to be independent minded and vote in Parliament according to the interests and wishes of their constituents, and their conscience, and that we don't have a "party whip" like more conventional parties.
What a refreshing change it would be to have even a few MPs like that speaking and voting in the House of Commons! and for that reason I say "Long may our policy on that continue".
But at least, over on another thread, which I cannot seem to post to, people are debating how best to spoil their ballot papers. Fur fox' sake! At least give the Greens a boost if there are no Pirates around!