Upcoming EU parliament elections

ddt said:
No, unfortunately not. The European "parties" are coalitions of national parties. Too bad, I wouldn't mind voting for a foreigner if I thought they represented my views well, but most people apparently don't think so, and primarily recognize their own politicians and national parties.

Oh, and European coalitions only get party status in the EP - and thus all kind of extra privileges - when they have representatives from a minimum number of countries (seven IIRC). Which is why people like Wilders have been looking lately to forge an anti-kebab coalition. Established political movements like social-democracy, christian-democracy or liberalism obviously have no such problems.
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The Dutch need to vote add Weed, Remove Kebab to be stronk! :p
 
NWO Sentryman said:
The Dutch need to vote add Weed, Remove Kebab to be stronk! :p
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:D Unfortunately, the tendency among politicians is to strongly discourage so-called "coffeeshops" (which sell weed) through all kinds of restrictive measures.
Craig B said:
May they be permitted to keep Rijsttafel? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijsttafel Or is that insufficiently European?
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Thank you for your concern!
NWO Sentryman said:
Rijsttafel is of Dutch cuisine, so it can into European. Kebab on the other hand... :p
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The idea of a rijsttafel is Dutch, but all the dishes are thoroughly Indonesian. So I'm not sure of your classification. An interesting point here is that Wilders has Indonesian ancestry. :)
 
Being in the Scottish constituency, I'll be looking at opinions polls and voting on the basis of making my vote most effective. My guess is that of the six seats, only one is really up for grabs and the we will likely have 2 SNP, 2 LAB and 1 CON. The sixth seat could go either to SNP , Lib Dem (where it currently is), Green or UKIP ( very small possibility Labour) . I'll vote for whoever out of the above looks to be doing best who isn't UKIP
 
Did you get one of these UKIP leaflets the postman has been delivering to everyone this week? It had photos of their Scottish candidates but otherwise seemed to be designed for England. I'm not sure they're really trying.

Some people are expressing concern they could do better than previously in Scotland but I don't know. I think there's a lot of hyping up going on, like the way the LibDems were hyped in 2010. And UKIP have never yet saved a deposit in Scotland, at any election.

Rolfe.
 
The latest UKIP disasters, an Irish immigrant acting as a UK worker displaced form a job in their electoral broadcasts, one of the candidates calling for one of the most popular entertainers in the UK, Lenny henry to be sent to a "Black" country, he just happens to be black.
 
Interestingly, my parents had a UKIP leaflet through the door when I nipped around to check their holiday post yesterday.

I didn't read it, and as I have instruction to bin the junk mail in their absence promptly got no. 1 son to consign it to file 13.
 
I sort of liberated one from a letterbox of an SNP supporter while I was delivering mail. It just came away in my hand, honest guv. It was still in my pocket when I ended up in the house of another supporter, at the end of my round. I suggested adding it to the logs being fed into the stove, but this was vetoed on the grounds that it might damage the stove.

Despite all the tweets about sending them back to the Freepost address wrapped round a brick, I put it and the one I received myself boringly into the recycling.

What I was actually delivering was postal vote application forms to canvassed supporters. I was accosted, pleasantly, by a resident and his wife who weren't on my list so I didn't have forms for them. They said they were going to be on holiday at the end of May and could I advise them about getting a postal vote. I told them what to do, apologising for not having forms for them. There's no doubt they stopped me because they recognised me as an SNP representative.

The gentleman then said that he believed it was important to vote in the Euro elections, especially considering what was happening in England with UKIP and threats to our EU membership. He believed wholeheartedly in the European project, and thought membership was a no-brainer. He then went on to praise Salmond's speech in Bruges earlier today, saying it was statesmanlike.

This was a gentleman who was clearly English, and not on the SNP's little list of known supporters or I would have had an envelope for him. He was an obvious SNP/Yes voter. I'm really quite cheered by the exchange, especially today with the blatant press smears designed to displace the Bruges speech from the news.

Rolfe.
 
I have a range of rightwing nutjobs to chose from:

An Independence from Europe | UK independence now

Britsh National Party |Because we can make Britain better

Conservative Party |For real change in Europe

English Democrats |I'm English, NOT British, NOT European

Green |

Harmony Party |Zero-Immigration, Anti-EU, Pro-Jobs

Labour Party |
Liberal Democrats|
UK Independence Party (UKIP)|
 
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Rolfe said:
Well, today's the day. Have YOU voted yet?

Rolfe.
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Yes, I did, at one of the over 100 polling stations in my city of 150,000 inhabitants (eat that, Americans!).

The choice was between 19 different parties, with each a slew of candidates. The most surreal thing is that various parties had lists of over 30 candidates, while there are only 26 Dutch seats in the EP. The topper in that respect is the PvdA, the Dutch Labour party, with 47 candidates on the list - while they're expected to get a sound beating.

I asked at the polling station about the turnout, but it was thus far low. I fear it will be as abysmal as the previous European elections. It's really a pity that people don't realize the influence of the EP. Add to that that the Dutch political parties treat the EP as a pariah, in that the candidates are all unknown people, and mostly politicians without any experience on other levels.

The other day, a Dutch talk show interviewed (separately) two candidates for the EP. One of them was the nr. 3 on the Dutch Labour list, who bragged that she might be better suited to forge coalitions between 6, 7 parties behind the screens. Granted, she had worked the previous term as parliamentary assistant in the EP, so she undoubtedly knows a bit her way. But the other EP candidate who was interviewed was Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian ex-PM who precisely had chaired coalitions of so many parties in his two terms as PM.

ETA: In many countries, the elections are not today but Sunday.
 
I voted about 8.15, on my way to work. Only one other voter to be seen. Not many had voted. Before that I had got up early to visit some of the polling stations in the smaller villages round about, to deliver SNP posters for display outslde. Not much activity evident.

The weather is very poor today, which tends to put people off, but there may be a surge of voters later. Relatively, anyway. These villages are small and the smallest only has 80 names registered to vote there - some of whom will have postal votes as they live even more miles into the middle of nowhere.

I have to go back round about ten o'clock tonight to collect the display material. I may go half an hour before that though, when it will still be daylight.

Rolfe.
 
I voted at about eight o'clock.

The staff seemed overjoyed to see me and Mrs Moon and I got the distinct impression that we were among the first people they'd seen.

My ballot form was about two metres long, with all of the dozens of 'Send the buggers back' parties on it.

There was also a left-wing Eurosceptic party, No2EU.
Dave Nellist was one of the candidates.
 
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