[pp.int.general] Pirate Party UK Critism

[Eric Priezkalns]

On 3 Oct 2009, at 19:17, Kai Mast wrote:

> I don't know about England. What do you mean with you need money to
> place a candidate? In Germany we just need signatures... do I get
> something wrong here?

Erm... I mean we in the UK need money in order to offer a candidate in  
every seat in every election.  Not every country has the same  
democratic procedures.  In the UK, if we get enough votes, the party  
gets its money back.  If we don't get enough votes, we don't get the  
money back.  Currently the threshold for the general election is 5%,  
so every seat where we get less than 5% of votes, we lose our deposit  
of GBP500.  That means that if we matched the German result of 2%  
overall, 3% in some places, it would cost us around 350,000 Euros if  
we had a candidate standing for every seat, and we would need that  
money to begin with, just to be allowed to compete in every seat.   
That is why I don't feel bad that raising money is central to the  
strategy for PPUK.

E