I had the opportunity to attend the BBC’s live radio broadcast of “Any Questions” last night, which turned out to be an interesting experience (For those not in the know, Any Questions is a weekly political discussion show where the BBC round up politicians and other prominent public and business figures to have questions on recent news flung at them by the mob). On the practical side, it’s all very straightforward ; you’d never know the entire thing was being beamed live to millions of people. You arrive about an hour early and submit the questions you’d like to ask (if you don’t have any, that’s fine), sit and chat with your neighbours for 20 minutes then someone (in our case, a R4 continuity announcer) comes out to give pithy anecdotes and put everyone at ease.
After everyone’s actually listening, the producer comes out to explain how everything works and declares who’s questions were chosen - these people are then shuffled to the front row. Then the panel arrives, a test question is asked to make sure all the microphones work, and the show begins – they broadcast the news live into the room, and as soon as it ends, the panel and ambient microphones become live and the broadcast begins – all very simple really, and discreetly low tech.
It’s worth noting that if you don’t ask a question the most you can contribute is heckles or applause – the ambient mikes can’t pickup audience responses. Because my views on this week’s news are fairly commonplace, I didn’t bother to submit a question but rather strategically positioned myself at the back so I could observe the slice of the population that attended, and their reactions to the questions and answers. Alas, the demographic was exactly as I’d feared – the mean age must have been well over 60, and 95% conservative.
The height of the evening came when the woman who’d asked a reasonable question about increasing local resources before building new houses to solve the current house price crisis (whereby anyone who doesn’t already own a house can’t possibly afford one) got her right of reply. Her comments ran to the tone that “anyone without a house should just move north where the houses are cheaper” are so infuriatingly elitist and selfish that I almost ran down the aisle to cease the mike. Playing in local politics around here is such an exercise in frustration, it’s little wonder no few under 40 actually bother.
Regardless, it was a worthwhile slice of local political opinion, and my thanks go to the BBC for continuing to run this sort of program (in the face of “Celebrity Brothers Love XFactor live”).
Noting that ammendment 71 was total rejection, this pretty much says it all. Thanks to an FFII member on Freenodes #bxl-ffii for the capture. I should also thank the FFII in general, who co-ordinated most of the lobbying against this directive.
I spent most of both Monday and Tuesday phoning and writing to various MEPs, gauging their position on the CII directive and hoping to push them in the right direction for today’s vote. It was much easier than I expected to actually get through to them, and my French got a free brush up. I thought it went well at the time, and indeed in the end, it does seem democracy does work. Today, thanks to the lobbying efforts of everyone involved in the “anti” campaign, we won. The European Parliament voted to reject the entire CII (so called “software patents”) directive, 648 to 14 (with 18 abstentions)!
It’s not the best result, because we would have preferred the directive to pass, but amended to disallow software patents. Hence, the current sub optimal law stands, and software patents will almost certainly be back on the agenda within the next five years. However, it’s insurmountably better than the directive passing unamended.
Dozens of emails, letters and phone calls later, we can finally bask in the glow of a victory in this battle. The war to ensure patent law remains fair and equitable for all businesses goes on.
Nearly 2 months after the letters were sent, here is the breakdown.
- Lib Dems - No replies at all, other than a small card saying my concerns were “noted” From Baroness Nicholson
- Conservative - Two replies saying I should contacted just one Conservative, and one reply from said MEP saying he was fully in support of software patents. A rebutal letter has received no response in over a month.
- Labour - One reply, saying they support it in theory, but have concerned. Repeated attempts to converse by email have resulted in no replies
- Green, UKIP - Rapid replies, strongly against software patents
- Independents - No replies
So far, it seems the “big 3″ parties are only capable of sending back form letters, with no independent thought at all. Trying to actually talk to them about the issue seems to fail entirely. It’s no small wonder no average citizen is interested in politics - the politicians aren’t! My current plan is to organise some telephone calls to both Labour and Conservative to force them to actually listen and respond.
Mr Huhne never replied to my software patents letter, and now I know why. It seems he was standing as MP for Eastleigh. I have mixed feelings about this, as he was employed as an MEP at the time, and seemingly neglecting those duties to campaign in a general election is a little bit concerning. However, he won, and as I voted Liberal, I guess this is a good thing.
Sharon Bowles replaces him in the European Parliment, and my letters and emails have been sent to her. I await with bated breath the first real Liberal Democrat reply!
