Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Trump and software freedom

[John Rooke]

On 17/09/18 21:26, Leah Rowe wrote:

> we have more chance of democratizing the house of lords (or abolishing
> it completely) and a better chance of influencing parliament in the UK.
>
> the EU parliament is pretty much powerless

Changes to the House of Lords will really be of no help at this stage in 
the game.  The legislation currently going through Parliament is 
designed to minimise the input from both Houses into the process of 
agreeing trade deals.  Unless the Trade Bill can be amended, the process 
will be even more secretive and undemocratic than it is currently in the 
EU.  A democratic second chamber is no doubt desirable, but it will come 
too late to affect the issues we are discussing.

Under the current system, a negotiated trade deal is presented to 
Parliament signed sealed and delivered.  Parliament has, I believe, 
three weeks to 'object' (an obscure process which nobody seems to know 
much about) in which case the deal can be delayed for a few weeks.

My experience of lobbying Afzal Khan, first as an MEP, then as an MP, is 
that he was much more receptive while he was in the European Parliament. 
 My impression is that MPs are under much tighter control by their 
political parties, who have many more perks to offer them, than they do 
to the MEPs.  Khan is now a shadow minister and he will not do anything 
unless it has been approved by the leadership.  Of course, you may have 
an MP who is a 'rebel', but then the issue, if it is taken up, becomes a 
political football, a pawn in the game to change the leadership. 
Frankly, with the other things that are going on, I don't think MPs give 
much of a damn about software freedom issues.

The EU Parliament is not powerless.  It has the power to stop the 
Copyright Directive.  If they pass the Directive and it becomes part of 
British law, or worse, of a post-Brexit trade treaty between the UK and 
Europe, there will IMHO be very little we can do.

John

--
John Rooke

Wittgenstein's Builders Blog <http://jalfro.altervista.org>

Trade Action Blog <https://tradeactionblog.wordpress.com>