Gordon Brown's Labour Party was decimated in the UK with them showing up worse than the ultra right British National Party in the UK.
Meanwhile in Sweden, the youth vote really got out and backed the party that they care about, The Pirate Party. As a result there are two members going to Brussels of the party that was spawned as a result of the crack down on file sharing and which took its name from the major file sharing search site, The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Party garnered 7.1% of the national vote - a huge result by any measure. (tip of the hat to P2Pnet for the story).
I think it is a pretty momentous occasion when such a thing takes place....
I don't agree with the principles of the Pirate Party, because I see it as a party that is in some respects like the Family First Party in Australia, obsessed with one issue, and so blind to the bigger picture. However, I applaud the youth of Sweden for sending a message to the content industries of the world to tell them that things have to change. This message that has gone to Europe will resonate around the world as politicians realize that their positions can be eroded if they don't pay attention to the youth vote.
The way that the Swedish vote was structured in total was:
Social Dem. - 24.6%
Moderate Party - 18.8%
Liberal P. Party - 13.6
Green Party - 10.8%
Pirate Party - 7.1%
Left Party - 5.6%
Centre Party - 5.5%
Christian Dem. - 4.7%
June List - 3.6%
Sweden Dem. - 3.3%
Feminist Initiative - 2.2%
However what was particularly interesting was the demographic break out. According to Swedish online paper, The Local this was the key finding:
"The polls beforehand had us at between eight and nice percent,
but everything over four percent is a political sensation," party
leader Rick Falkvinge told news agency TT.
12 percent of men and 4 percent of women plumped for the Pirate Party, according to the SVT survey.
Among voters aged under 30, some 19 percent are believed to have cast a vote for the Pirate Party.
"They are the biggest party among young people, bigger than both the Social Democrats and the Moderates," said politics professor Sören Holmberg.
12 percent of men and 4 percent of women plumped for the Pirate Party, according to the SVT survey.
Among voters aged under 30, some 19 percent are believed to have cast a vote for the Pirate Party.
"They are the biggest party among young people, bigger than both the Social Democrats and the Moderates," said politics professor Sören Holmberg.
The Times online carried a story about this as well, and I think it is telling to read the comments from readers about the story. Here is one:
I, and my friends, who are bourgeois, conservative and libertarian,
voted for the Pirate Party to send a message to the bourgeois parties
of Sweden who, with the Social Democrats, are building up a police
state that monitors it's citizens - it had nothing to do with file
sharing.
This is the thing that governments need to be paying attention to. Record companies, through their pig-headed commitment to trying to get the entire world and all its consumers to tow their "party" line are actually creating a rallying call in communities for all the perceived transgressions of governments. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the thin end of the wedge. Regardless of whether the Pirate Party is a one-issue organization, it has the potential to unite people against the system. When you look at how many things in the system are broken, maybe that is not too bad of an idea.
