Iceland rolls its corrupt government

Icelanders went to the polls for the second time in a year over the weekend, and robbed their corrupt government of its majority:

Iceland’s ruling centre-right parties have lost their majority after a tight election that could usher in only the second left-of-centre government in the country’s history as an independent nation.

With all votes counted after the Nordic island’s second snap poll in a year, the conservative Independence party of the scandal-plagued outgoing prime minister, Bjarni Benediktsson, was on course to remain parliament’s largest.

But it lost five of of its 21 seats in the 63-member Althing, potentially paving the way for its main opponent, the Left-Green Movement headed by Katrín Jakobsdóttir, to form a left-leaning coalition with three or more other parties.

All the governing parties lost seats, and one of them, Bright Future, was eliminated entirely, being reduced to just 1.2% of the vote. Despie that, 25% of Icelanders till voted for a party whose leader corruptly used government information to profit from bank nationalisation. That's appalling.

Political fragmentation means that any government is going to require the cooperation of at least four parties, and maybe even more than that. But its doable, and hopefully Iceland will have a new, non-corrupt government soon.

Yaaarrrr!

Back in October, Iceland went to the polls in a snap-election, and elected the Pirate Party as its third-largest party. Now, they've been invited to try forming a government:

Iceland’s president has invited the anti-establishment Pirate party to form a government, after the right- and leftwing parties failed in their bids.

Guðni Jóhannesson made the announcement on Friday after meeting with the head of the Pirate’s parliamentary group, Birgitta Jónsdóttir.

“I met with the leaders of all parties and asked their opinion on who should lead those talks. After that I summoned Birgitta Jónsdóttir and handed her the mandate,” he said.

The numbers are potentially there; the question is whether they can come up with a policy platform everyone will agree to support, at least temporarily. But after two failed attempts at government formation, the pressure will be on to succeed. Which means we may be about to get our first pirate government!

Dammit

Iceland went to the polls over the weekend, and while the final outcome isn't clear yet, what is clear is that the Pirate Party fell well short of expectations. Instead, they merely tripled their vote, from 5.1% to 14.5% - but its a long way from the 22% and leading place in the government coalition we were hoping for.

The various parties are trying to hammer out a coalition, but the decision is basicly in the hands of the new Revival Party, a Green liberal party which split from the incumbent Independence Party over Europe. They could go either way, so its really just a question of whether they want to support the corrupt political establishment, or the anti-establishment coalition.

Meanwhile, with 10 seats in the Althing, the Pirate Party should be able to exercise some influence. And hopefully we'll see that reflected in Icelandic policy on copyright, privacy, and human rights.

Will Iceland go Pirate?

Iceland goes to the polls on Saturday - and the Pirate Party is still leading:

The party that could be on the cusp of winning Iceland's national elections on Saturday didn't exist four years ago.

Its members are a collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians and Web geeks. It sets policy through online polls - and thinks the government should do the same. It wants to make Iceland "a Switzerland of bits," free of digital snooping. It has offered Edward Snowden a new place to call home.

[...]

The latest opinion polls show the Pirates jostling for first place with the Independence Party. The centre-right party is synonymous with Iceland's political establishment, having governed the country for much of its modern history. But it was badly tarnished by its stewardship of the bubble economy in the lead-up to the 2008 crash.

I'm fascinated to see how this goes. If the Pirate party enters government it will be a huge boost to the global anti-surveillance movement and help increase pressure elsewhere. And it will be interesting to see what stealable solutions they come up with to help everyone protect themselves from the spies and the copyright mafia.

Fallout

On Monday we learned that Iceland's Prime Minister had a secret offshore company which he had inexplicably failed to declare to parliament when he was elected. Even worse, it held millions of dollars in claims on Iceland's collapsed banks, creating a serious conflict of interest with his campaign promises. Naturally, there were massive protests - Iceland hasn't forgotten that it is a democracy yet - and today, the corrupt scumbag was driven from office. Its unclear at this stage whether there will be a snap election, but given how many of Iceland's senior Ministers also had secret offshore companies, that's probably only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, in the UK, David Cameron is coming under similar pressure. It turns out that his father is up to his neck in offshore tax-cheating, and Cameron is refusing to answer questions about it:

David Cameron was left dangerously exposed on Tuesday after repeatedly failing to provide a clear and full account about links to an offshore fund set up by his late father, as the storm over the Panama Papers gathered strength in both the UK and elsewhere around the world.

The prime minister and his office have now offered three partial answers about the fund set up by his father Ian, which avoided ever paying tax in Britain. The key unanswered question is whether the prime minister’s family stands to gain in the future from his father’s company, Blairmore, an investment fund run from the Bahamas.

Cameron has previously denounced tax cheating, and rightly so: it is simply immoral to launder money to avoid paying your fair share. But the same applies to people who benefit from tax cheating, and Cameron needs to come clean about it so the public can hold him accountable. Meanwhile, if the UK public doesn't want to be led by tax cheats, maybe they should take a page from Iceland's book, surround the Parliament, and refuse to move until the elite resigns and calls new, democratic elections.

Freedom of speech wins in Iceland

Iceland has repealed its blasphemy law:

Iceland has legalised blasphemy following a campaign started by the Pirate party after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in France. The move to repeal the 75-year-old law, under which blasphemers could be imprisoned for up to three months or fined, faced opposition from some church groups.

In a statement on its website, the party wrote that it was a victory for freedom of speech and showed the principle could not be defeated by terrorist attacks. The law, which was passed in 1940, had been an attack on “humorists and all the friends of freedom of expression”, the party added.

Good. Blasphemy is an archaic offence whose sole purpose is to protect religion from criticism and punsih those who do not subscribe to the popular orthodoxy. It has no place in a free and democratic society. But while Iceland has joined the free world, blasphemous libel is still on the books in New Zealand. Isn't it time we repealed it?

Beaten to it

When John Key announced that (in his view) NSA leaker Edward Snowden was not welcome in New Zealand, my first thought was that he should be challenged on that, by an MP putting up a member's bill to grant him citizenship. But Iceland has beaten us to it:

ICELANDIC MPs have introduced a proposal in parliament to grant immediate citizenship to National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of US surveillance activities.

Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee on Thursday, but the idea received minimal support.

Iceland has done this before, in the case of chess master Bobby Fischer, who was persecuted by the US for playing chess with the Wrong People. And its a strong statement of principle. New Zealand should make that statement too. Granting refuge to Snowden would be a strong statement of our national values: freedom, democracy, human rights, and independence. All we need is an MP brave enough to stand up and say it.

Pirates ahoy!

Iceland went to the polls on Saturday, and returned the centre-right to power. That's right: the same parties who were dramatically kicked out four years ago for causing the country's banking crisis are now back in, largely because of the austerity required to clean up the mess they made. And now they'll no doubt go back to the same lax oversight which caused the mess in the first place...

But the interesting news is that the election saw Pirate party Iceland win three seats, becoming the first Pirate Party to win seats in a national legislature. They're there to push for the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a widescale law-reform to protect freedom of expression. The IMMI has been backed by members of all parties, and hopefully they'll see it become law.

NeoLiberalism on trial

Former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde went on trial today for gross negligence in office over his role in Iceland's financial meltdown:

The Icelandic parliament's "truth report" into the causes of the crisis that forced the country to borrow $10bn (£6.3bn) to prop up its economy, accused him of "gross negligence". He is also accused of failing to rein in the country's fast-growing banks, whose paper value before the crash had ballooned to 10 times the gross domestic product of the island state of 320,000 people. And he is alleged to have withheld information that indicated the state was headed for financial disaster.

If convicted, he faces up to two years imprisonment. And he's not alone: more than 200 bankers, including the chief executives of all three major banks, are also facing criminal charges. These people destroyed their country, and drove their people into penury. But unlike most jurisdictions, Iceland seems to have both the laws and the political will to hold them to account.

Accountability, Icelandic style III

Back in 2008, Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde was driven from office over his mishandling of the Icelandic banking crisis. Today, he went on trial for it:

Haarde is the first world leader to face criminal charges in relation to the global financial crisis, which caused the collapse of banks across the world and helped plunge the UK into recession. He is also the first person to be hauled before Iceland's Landsdomur, a criminal court created in 1905 to hear charges brought against ministers.

Last year Iceland's parliament, the Althingi, voted to indict Haarde for "economic negligence" in failing to prevent the 2008 financial crisis, which brought the country to its knees.

Haarde was charged with "violations committed from February 2008 through the beginning of October of the same year, by intent or gross neglect, mostly violations against the laws of ministerial responsibility".

If convicted, he could face two years imprisonment. And it would be deserved. This man's decisions still threaten to reduce Icelanders to permanent debt-slavery to pay off the foreign creditors of the banks he bailed out.

Meanwhile, I can't help but think that if our leaders could be held criminally liable for their conduct in office, they would be a lot more careful. And if it was a possibility during the 90's, then we wouldn't be suffering from a multi-billion dollar leaky homes crisis today.

Accountability, Icelandic style II

Earlier in the month, an Icelandic Parliamentary committee recommended that former Prime Minister Geir Haarde stand trial for misconduct in office over the collapse of the Icelandic banking industry. Today, the Althing agreed, voting to send his case to a special Court of Impeachment.

This is unprecedented. While Iceland's constitution includes these powers, they have never before been used. OTOH, its also well deserved - and if Haarde's deregulation and bail-out of the banks wasn't official misconduct, you really have to wonder what would be.

Accountability, Icelandic style

Back in 2009, the people of Iceland drove the government of Prime Minister Geir Haarde from office after its lax regulation had destroyed the economy. Now a Parliamentary committee has recommended that Haarde and three of his Ministers stand trial over the collapse for negligence in office and violating the law on ministerial responsibility. Now that's accountability.

Parliament will now vote on the charges, and if they decide to proceed, a Court of Impeachment (provided for in Article 14 of the Icelandic Constitution) will be convened for the first time in over a century. I'm not sure what the penalty is if convicted (and the indictment includes "breaches of the Icelandic penal code" as well as violations of Ministerial responsibility), but the mere fact that a conviction is recorded would be a serious penalty to any politician.

Iceland becomes a media haven

Iceland's Althingi has unanimously passed the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative:

Created with the involvement of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, it increases protection for anonymous sources, creates new protections from so-called "libel tourism" and makes it much harder to censor stories before they are published.

"It will be the strongest law of its kind anywhere," said Birgitta Jonsdottir, MP for The Movement party and member of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, which first made the proposals. "We're taking the best laws from around the world and putting them into one comprehensive package that will deal with the fact that information doesn't have borders any more."

The law also prevents foreign judgements which violate freedom of speech from being enforced in Iceland, effectively turning the state into a haven for media organisations. ABC and Der Spiegel are apparently already looking at shifting some of their investigate journalism operations there to take advantage of this.

This is a good law. It protects the interests of the people against those of governments and corporations. So, anyone want to put up a member's bill to do the same thing here?

Equality comes to Iceland

Iceland's Althingi has unanimously passed a same-sex marriage law. The bill has yet to be signed by the country's President, but that is regarded as a formality; unlike the US, Iceland is completely relaxed about the issue, and doesn't see it as a big deal.

So, again, when is New Zealand going to join the civilized world? The bill is drafted; all we need is an MP brave enough to take it.

Iceland rejects debt-slavery

Iceland went to the polls yesterday in a referendum on the government's debt-repayment deal with the UK and the Netherlands - and rejected it utterly, with 93% voting against. That's a powerful message to Iceland's international "creditors" that the Icelandic people do not regard themselves as liable for the private debts of selfish bankers - and a powerful threat to any Icelandic government who dares to think otherwise. Icelanders have already toppled one government over the banker's bailout, and it looks like they'll be quite happy to do it again if the current government fails to properly represent their views.

The interesting question is what the UK and Netherlands will do. They're making the usual threats of financial armageddon, but the blunt fact is that the Icelandic government simply cannot meet their demands (and if it purports to, it will be rolled and replaced with one that rejects them). Turning the screw tighter - e.g. by repeating their 2008 abuse of anti-terrorist legislation - won't change that, and will simply harden attitudes further. Unfortunately, acknowledging that reality would mean a loss of face, and so we're likely see a lengthy period of pointless and futile sadism, as the UK tries to squeeze blood out of a stone.

Iceland revolts against debt-slavery II

Iceland's President has just announced that he will veto the government's debt-slavery legislation and send the law to a referendum. Which means that it is toast. With 70% of the population opposed, and 25% of them opposed enough to bother signing a petition, the referendum will fail and the law will never take effect. The markets will no doubt wail and gnash their teeth and threaten Dire Consequences for Iceland's "reneging" on a debt it has no moral obligation for and which was forced on them by bullying - but at the end of the day, Iceland is a democracy, and its people simply will not accept being forced to pay for the folly of a few greedy and irresponsible bankers. And any government which disagrees is likely to be forced from office.

It will be interesting to see how the UK will react. In 2008, they abused anti-terrorist legislation to force this debt on Iceland, and they may very well try the same move again. The problem is that no matter how tightly they twist the Icelandic government's arm, it simply cannot deliver. Giving them money requires passing a law, and such a law will fail at a referendum (or, if a referendum is denied, fail the test of public legitimacy so severely as to cause politicians to be lynched and the government to fall). Twisting tighter won't change that, and will likely increase public opposition even further. The question is whether they will understand that, or whether they will continue fruitless sadism in an effort to squeeze blood from a stone...

Iceland revolts against debt-slavery

Back in 2008, we saw one of the most naked and tawdry displays of big-country power in recent memory, when the UK abused anti-terror legislation to freeze the assets of the Icelandic government to force it to guarantee the deposits of UK citizens in a collapsed Icelandic bank. Faced with this sort of pressure, the Icelandic government capitulated, and effectively sold its own people into debt-slavery, accepting a debt amounting to 40% of its GDP which it had no moral obligation for.

Last week, the Icelandic Parliament finally passed a law cementing the deal, providing for crippling payments to the UK and the Netherlands over the next 15 years. But there's a problem: the Icelandic people will not accept being enslaved to pay someone else's debts. 60,000 of them - 25% of the voting population - have signed a petition opposing the bill. And as a result, Iceland's President has delayed signing it into law, and looks set to invoke his rarely-used power to put a bill to a referendum. With 70% opposition, if it goes to a vote, the bill will lose. If it doesn't go to a vote, then there will almost certainly be a repeat of the mass public protests which forced the collapse of the previous government in 2009. And those protests will be repeated until a new government is elected which repudiates the unjust debt.

The UK government will be furious, and will no doubt threaten further asset freezes. But Iceland's people are not going to be enslaved. And if their politicians collaborate with foreign economic oppression, then they will roll them and get new ones.

Iceland settles the score with neoliberalism

Iceland went to the polls yesterday to replace the government the people drove from office after it had destroyed the country's economy. The result was a resounding victory for the left, with the Social Democrat Alliance and Left-Green Movement collectively winning 34 seats in the 63 seat Parliament. The neo-liberal Independence Party, whose deregulation of the financial sector had caused the mess, were decimated, losing nine seats. Talk about political chickens coming home to roost...

Johanna Sigurdardottir, the Social Democratic leader and Prime Minister, said that the country was "settling the score with the [sic] neoliberalism". Other neo-liberal governments should take note. If they don't change their policies, the people may want to settle a score with them too.

A first

Johanna Sigurdardottir is currently Iceland's Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security. But thanks to the collapse of the Icelandic government due to the international financial crisis, she is about to get a promotion. Next week, she will be sworn in as Prime Minister in a caretaker administration which will govern the country until elections can be held. This will be a first on two fronts: Iceland will get its first woman Prime Minister - and the world will get its first openly gay head of government. And so another barrier to equality is broken down...

Good news for the whales

Iceland has cancelled its commercial whale hunt on the basis that its uneconomic. Apparently, there's no domestic market for whale meat, and they can't export it as its covered under CITES.

Unfortunately, the lack of any market hasn't stopped Japan's "scientific whaling" program. But the primary "research" they now seem to be doing is measuring the shelf-life of frozen whale meat.