[kryten]

He'll be fine if he can get to the Ecuadorian Embassy quick enough :)

I live in the UK and am utterly disgusted at the pieces of shit that act in our name.

You can't vote them out as it's a bipartisan system with two sets of the same ideals.

You can't revolt because everyone is too busy staring at Simon Cowel's nefarious trash pumped through our telescreens.

You can't speak up because it's illegal.

Sit, obey, conform.

[znowi]

Funny, it sounds very similar to the US :) I wonder why :)

[kryten]

Well same turd, rolled in different glitter to be honest.

[ameen]

That cracked me up. Is Assange expected to die in that embassy?

[kryten]

At the moment, yes. His only other options are:

1. Get from the building to a diplomatically immune car and out of the EU. Not going to happen: the fuzz will snag him the moment he steps out of the door.

2. Wait for a politically sympathetic party is voted in and the extradition rules are changed. Not going to happen: people are too stupid to vote for anything other than "the big two" and if they did, they won't change policy or America will go all "Fuck Yeah" on our arses.

3. Wait for the whole thing to be uncovered publicly as a fucking massive international political scam and he is pardoned.

4. Hope that Kurzweil was right, upload his conscious mind to a machine with OpenSSH and SCP himself overseas.

I reckon (3) is most likely.

[aptwebapps]

I'd add:

5. He finally gets stir crazy enough to attempt to sneak out and gets collared or just decides to take his chances in Sweden.

6. Ecuador gets sick of him and kicks him out (maybe after a change of leadership).

And I think 5 is likelier than 3.

[potatolicious]

I feel like 6 is likely to happen before anything else. His presence is a net negative for Ecuador, I can't see it being very popular that they have a highly wanted individual hanging around the house all day.

[gaius]

Swedish jails are actually very humane; the irony is he would have gotten more sunlight, fresh air, exercise and probably better food too, if he had just surrendered a year ago.

[kryten]

Until they extradite him to the US that is...

[gaius]

Would be a breach of EU law if they did - as he was extradited from the UK, he has to be returned to the UK. And if the UK was going to extradite him, why would he be so keen on staying here?

[tjmc]

What about the old magicians trick where 100 people walk in, put on Guy Fawkes masks, then all leave at once in different directions?!

I for one hope he gets to take a senate seat in Australia. Under the rules of parliamentary privilege you can say anything in the chamber without risk of prosecution. Imagine he'd have a bit to say...

[gaius]

I don't know what you're imagining the Ecuadorean embassy to be, but it's actually just a large-ish apartment in a normal apartment building. There aren't that many doors, probably only a front door and a fire escape. And from the photos, I don't think they're on the ground floor either, so they can't even tunnel out...

That's one of the reasons they want rid of him - they didn't have much space to start with.

[kryten]

They invented the machine gun for such circumstances.

[gexla]

5. They get so sick of sharing that place with him that they appoint him ambassador to the UK for life and the rest of the staff bails.

[grecy]

If the powers that be get desperate enough they'll just burn down the embassy, forcing him to come out.

It will be an "accidental" gas leak or some such.

[doe88]

(related) since he's been confined in this place I was wondering what happens if he must see a dentist or receive some emergency medical cares? It's better than gitmo but it's no paradise either.

[nly]

Pay someone enough and they'll come to you.

[theklub]

I came up with a crazy idea this morning for an internet based political party that allows its members to vote on all ideas and actions the party will take. I think now is the time for something like this. We need to make it happen.

[Jenk]

Be careful on what you wish for.

"The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." Winston Churchill.

[kryten]

Perhaps we should give people a proportional vote weighted by their intelligence?

[alexjeffrey]

that sounds like a formula for a true intellectually elitist society. The people's opinions should be heard equally if at all.

[kryten]

My point entirely. There was a degree of sarcasm in it.

[kryten]

Could be right.

If you could text your vote in, most of the UK could even manage to have an opinion between the adverts in the X-Factor and their next cigarette.

[nly]

Good distributed voting at scale is still an unsolved problem. Well, it is if you care about both the integrity of the vote and voter privacy.

[jpatokal]

The Pirate Party has been there and is doing that: http://liquidfeedback.org/mission/