The Pirates

Around the beginning of 2006, a Swedish guy named Rickard Falkvinge established a new political party which no one really expected to amount to much......the Pirate Party.

If you asked most people about the key features to this political party.....it's mostly about emphasizing civil rights, a short citizen-to-government democracy and participation by the general public in the various platforms of the govenrnment.

I should note, they want major reforms in copyright and patent laws.   They also harp a great deal about information privacy.  And they talk a great deal about transparency in government.

Oh, and they are absolutely dedicated to anti-corruption.

I bring all of this up because the Panama-papers episode has created this fascinating episode in Iceland.

I know....it's rare that Iceland gets brought up in the news.  In this case.....after they found out their President had accounts in Panama and may or may not have paid taxes.....the public got infuriated with the guy.  After the 2008 economic stumble, there's not much patience in Iceland with economic events.

So, according to the poll people....43-percent of the public is leaning toward the Pirate Party, as elections are going to be held within the next three or four months.  It wouldn't take very much for the Pirates to actually move up another ten-percent and have a majority of people vote for them.

The curious thing about the party?  I spent a fair amount of time researching the Icelandic Pirates.  The Icelandic guys did something unique with their political party.....the whole structure is flat.  No hierarchy.  There's just an executive committee with seven folks, seven back-ups, and a rotating  President.

The thing is.....this is like a group of folks who meet down at some pub....talk over issues and reach a better-than-fifty-percent solution on a problem, with no fake agenda, no fraudulent political chatter, and they don't spend weeks hyping over things that have no connection to reality.

In some ways, this has to scare the normal political parties because the public might actually get a couple of regular people who successfully run a government.