The Pirate party gained a number of seats in Berlin's elections, but a radical online agenda faces more challenges in the UK
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John Naughton
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 September 2011 19.05 BST
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'The bovine way in which the Commons passed Lord Mandelson's digital economy bill does not exactly engender confidence in the British political class's understanding of these matters.' Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
The fact that the Pirate party has won 8.9% of the vote in the Berlin state elections - thereby giving them 15 seats in the legislature - has given rise to some head-scratching in psephological circles. And not without reason: it isn't often that a political party takes a relaxed view of filesharing, advocates radical reform of intellectual property laws, opposes state surveillance in all its forms, evangelises about open source and then has electoral success in the real world.