[Wolves] Episode 8 LugRadio and the elections

[Stuart Langridge]

Tom Edwards wrote:
> fizzy wrote:
>> --- Peter Cannon <peter at cannonlinux.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:  
>>> Are you saying LugRadio is going to be a political
>>> forum? If so will th BNP be on? I don't subscribe to them but I do 
>>> uphold the
>>> "freedom of speech" concept.
>> It's going to have an election special in relation to
>> software issues, yes.  As the BNP are (thankfully) a
>> minor party
> Ah yes, but who defines what a crazy fringe element is, and is it really 
> democratic to deny people coverage/access/whatever just because we are 
> not so keen on what they have to say? The BNP has a point of view, a 
> scarey one, which is widely misunderstood to be less extreme than it is, 
> but if they are standing in the elections why shouldn't the electorate 
> make an informed choice. Surely it is better to hear the view directly 
> (and be disgusted into voting for someone else) rather than be told that 
> it is wrong / right by someone else?

Important point here. The purpose of the LugRadio special is not to 
assess each party's manifesto. Instead, it's to see how the major 
parties feel about issues affecting free software, such as software 
patents. I don't believe that we've avoided approaching the BNP because 
of their other policies; instead, they have no stand on software 
patents. The Liberal Democrats, as a counter, have someone specifically 
tasked with representing policy on these and similar matters. I suspect 
our message will relate to which of the parties we interviewed have a 
stand most commensurate with our own on issues affecting free software, 
and will remain rightfully silent on those parties that we did not 
interview. If a party refused to be interviewed then we may look at 
public statements from them on these issues if there are any. But don't 
take us for universal political commentators; we won't be looking at 
health policy or education.

Aq.