complaints about "aggressive lobbying"

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

PA Axel Horns writes:

> When winding up the debate, Arlene McCarthy MEP had concluded: "Mr
> President, I did not want to make this point during my speech, but it
> is necessary that it should be made. In the ten years that I have been
> an MEP I have never encountered such a personal, aggressive and
> abusive campaign as I have with this particular directive. I have been
> bullied and harassed by lobbyists. My staff have been bullied to the
> extent that one of them had to take days off with a stress- related
> illness. "

Our group has completely stayed far away from Mrs McCarthy for half a
year, ever since it became clear to us that she was not listening.  We
also told our supporters not to waste their time trying to convert Ian
Paisley to catholicism.

We have however had friendly relations with McCarthy's assistant Emma
Bandy, who always came to take notes at our public meetings in the
European Parliament and with whom we always had friendly conversations
when we happened to meet her in a corridor.

I have also been informed that Emma took a few days off due to stress in
the last weeks.  I do not know whether this is related to anybody's
"bullying".  If so, certainly not to ours.

Arlene McCarthy has in recent weeks lost all support in her own party.
Her tactics of personalising the debate convinced anybody.  It became
outright ridiculous when she invented the "Free Software Alliance"

        http://swpat.ffii.org/players/fsa/

and other bullies while failing to respond to the letter of the
economists.

Note that a few other software patent proponents in the Parliament have
also embarked on a tactic of self-pitying and creating myths about
aggressive lobbyists.

The pattern is so consistent between McCarthy, Wuermeling, Harbour and
even to some extent Plooij and Manders, that I wonder whether these
phantom aggressors might really exist.  Maybe some agents provocateurs
pretending to represent FFII/Eurolinux?  Or is it just that people who
know that they are promoting an unjust cause have to invent some horror
story in order to obtain some kind of solidarity reflex from fellow MEPs?

That may have worked in June in JURI, but by now most MEPs have noticed
that the concern about software patents is far larger than just some "Free
Software Alliance" or FFII or Eurolinux or whatever group someone tries to
portray as the bad bullies.

See

        http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/plen0924/

for comparison and discussion of various attempts at creating fear,
uncertainty and distrust about the EP's amended directive.  The tunes of
McCarthy, Bolkestein and Horns are very similar to each other.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance             tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
270,000 votes 2000 firms against software patents    http://noepatents.org/