Alan Cox has written an interesting open letter about software patents and the EU elections. Basically he's arguing that in the UK you should vote tactically for either the Greens, or the UK Independance Party, and that given the historically low turnout, your vote is likely to count more than you might think.
This seems interesting. Whatever you may think about the futility of oppossing the EU juggernaut's attempt to force in software patents, it is worth voting for an MEP likely to reflect your stance on software patents, as (I suspect) ultimately votes are more likely to swing opinions than attempting to lobby your MEP. Plus it takes less effort to vote than to write a well constructed letter reasoning your position, your MEP has to pay attention to votes (it's the law, at least round here), whereas they can happily ignore your letter. It's not like you ave to shave or dress up, or deal with hateful user interfaces (UK voting "machines" can be used successfully by any 3 year old - not sure about other parts of the EU), and there's plenty of time to go to the pub aftewards.
