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RE: [LUG] EU Vote June 12th - who to vote for




Simon Said:

Whilst I may not like the UKIP, the EU is too unaccountable, and very
badly run, and the benefits attained are far less than the costs (even
if Microsoft shoulder some of them).

Agreed, the question is do we stay in and elect some who will look after our
interests, and bring more equilibrium to the EU (whatever that may be and
however that may be done), or do we get out (and probably still have to
comply to the laws in order to trade without the right to vote on anything).
I'm a sceptic of EU policy / policy making process, but I do think we need
it (or at least a better "it") .

The problem is so many people now feel detached from the centre of Europe
that few people vote anyway, IMHO too few to make the process democratic
anyway. This is not to imply that Britain is better than the rest of Europe,
because we have certainly contributed to its problems.

Open Source Software would be an ideal solution for so many SME's and the EU
should be doing all it can to protect the rights of SME's (and individuals)
to use Open Source Alternatives. However SME don't necessarily have the
skills / resources to invest in GNU/Linux, nor do they have the time and
resources to lobby politicians when multinationals put pressure on to pass
damaging laws. Even if David does slay Goliath, he will only wake up in the
morning to find he has to do the same thing yet again.

Its hard to square the investment that comes from the EU into OSS
development and use, with the willingness to pass laws that will restrict
its development. I guess its yet more proof that the left hand doesn't know
what the right hand is doing.

What we should be doing is voting for a panels of specialist drawn from the
appropriate field of expertise. Not voting for general purpose ministers who
do a general purpose job (IMHO).

Tom.


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