[pp.int.general] Our ideology

[Reinier Bakels]

> Still, I think this can be done - and this _needs_ to be done. Such
> openness is a prerequisite for limiting the power of corporate lobbying
> (which, I believe, is needed so that we can eventually get to the
> copyright reform). It should not be our primary 'populist' goal - as it
> does not get so many people worked up about. But it does fall in naturally
> with our other goals - and it shows that Pirate Party is not a one trick
> pony.

I guess that a very basic means to get more people involved in politics is 
better communication. No one knows what is happening in Brussels - so 
European election results effectively are based on national politics. A 
major theme at the last European elections was: are you in favour or against 
"more Europe"? That is NOT a decision of the European Parliament, but of the 
national parliaments. Politicians make a habit to spread lies. In more 
polite words: the political "truth" is often different from the factual 
truth. When our Minister of Justice told that in the past years, so that we 
need less prisons in the future, there is less and less severe crime, 
right-wing politicians politicised this statement and said that only the 
police should work harder. For political purposes, the difference between 
severe crime and feelings of unsafety on the street are deliberately 
confused. A drunken hooligan is unpleasant, but it is not a severe criminal.

Somehow, it is a checken-and-egg  problem. Newspapers and TV networks spend 
little attention to European themes, so no one knows about them, and no one 
is interested, so it is is not attractive to make newspaper articles or TV 
news items on EU politics. Perhaps there should be an (initially subsidised) 
European TV network - which should have full journalistic freedom, except 
that it should concentrate on "Brussels" and "Strassbourg".

One could learn from populists that they are often very good communicators 
(even if the means are occasionally questionable, like Berlusconi owning TV 
netwoirks himself). Wilders, a very dangerous fascist Dutch politican, is a 
genius in attracting media attention. Of course, PP should distinguish 
itself from populists in the sense that it spreads *honest* messages.

Incidentally, in he aftermath of the EP elections, my (Dutch) newspaper 
qualified the PP as "populist" from the perception that its sole purpose was 
to allow youngsters to download "illegal" content for free. Just a way to 
please spoilt children ...  Needless to say that is a stark simplification 
of the PP objectives!

reinier