European Elections 2014

So...

Who has the opportunity to vote today, and who is doing so?

I still cannot decide where my vote is going, so looking for last minute inspiration.

I kinda despise a lot of the notions that have come from Britain being part of Europe, especially when it comes down to all of the legislation that is imposed upon manufacturing / industry and laws in general. My company is currently spending thousands of pounds and a hell of a lot of man hours trying to get up to speed with new BS:EN / CE Marking laws that come into effect soon and it will cost the national industry a fortune....

However, I am all down to fair immigration laws and transit of peoples between states, especially when individuals abide by the laws of the country they are in (including paying of taxes). You should be aloud to freely move to another country to work, as long as there is work for you, and you adhere to the systems in place.

Voting UKIP seems like a rather silly idea for the elections next year, but in terms of them getting a few MEPs in parliament I quite like that idea. Would definitely ruffle up a few of the old guards feathers and help chuck some more viewpoints into the open.

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:39 PM, feltcher said:

Voting UKIP seems like a rather silly idea for the elections next year, but

 

 

Nope.

Me I'm voting for IU (European Left). A bunch of revisionist shitheads, and they have done plenty of unforgivable things, but it's better to vote for them than to do nothing while the Le Pens and Farages get all the votes.

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:41 PM, Gary C said:

 

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:39 PM, feltcher said:

Voting UKIP seems like a rather silly idea for the elections next year, but

 

 

 

Nope.

 

So who is getting your vote then?

I love how UKIP are getting so much vitriol at present (and rightly so from some of the shit they have said) but lest us not forget that Labour and Tories have their fair share of bigots, hidden agenda's, fudged expense claims and fluffs.

From my point of view, the Conservative government have done a fairly good job of handling the recession and the (apparent) recovery. I would like to see them back in after the next general election, although most likely with another coalition).

I'm not voting.

Which means that my opinion on such matters is apparently less valid than those who will, so, bye.

i hope the Greens do well

  On 5/22/2014 at 2:06 PM, Gary C said:

I'm not voting.

 

Which means that my opinion on such matters is apparently less valid than those who will, so, bye.

Well you can't really say "don't vote for X" without any validation to back up your argument, or without giving opinions for why you should vote for another party instead.

But as you say, if you have decided not to vote, then at least when the results are in you cannot complain about it.

  On 5/22/2014 at 2:11 PM, Bread said:

i hope the Greens do well

Me too. Although I don't buy into the whole "no nuclear" thing.

White vote.

i would have voted green, but I forgot to register because i had no idea this was happening until yesterday. also the chances of me getting up at 9am were slim anyway

I'm voting for a bunch called "dream job party", they chose their representatives by random draw (anybody could sign up). The idea is that even a random person, motivated by getting a "dream job" is a better choice than the standard politicians involved.

Sounds like a nightmare job tbh.

dunno, hate them all really...probably green though...

Up to know I've been labour but I'm really not sure. Got a few hours to think before I do though.

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:51 PM, feltcher said:

 

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:41 PM, Gary C said:

 

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:39 PM, feltcher said:

Voting UKIP seems like a rather silly idea for the elections next year, but

 

 

 

Nope.

 

 

So who is getting your vote then?

 

I love how UKIP are getting so much vitriol at present (and rightly so from some of the shit they have said) but lest us not forget that Labour and Tories have their fair share of bigots, hidden agenda's, fudged expense claims and fluffs.

 

From my point of view, the Conservative government have done a fairly good job of handling the recession and the (apparent) recovery. I would like to see them back in after the next general election, although most likely with another coalition).

 

I guess thats the thing about points of view, they are heavily dependent on circumstances. Im assuming your circumstances don't involve having a relative or friend who is suffering form a lifelong disability who has been unfairly assessed fit for work, to then go through a painful and extremely long process of appealing the decision only to be told that they were right all along and they should never have been put in this situation in the first place. (i think around 80% of all the recent ASOS appeals have been upheld)

Im also assuming your circumstances don't involve living in council accommodation where you have to provide care for your wife who is suffering from MS and has had the spare room turned into a makeshift hospital room so that she could have at least some comfort and a reasonable standard of living only to be told that she will now be taxed for this because she is "wasting space"

Im also assuming that none of your friends or family have been affected by the swinging cuts of social services throughout the north of England that has effectively ceased ALL child services in certain city boroughs. Meaning that if a youth is suffering from mental illness, or is affected by their parents drug and alcohol use, or is suffering from aspergers which then affects their ability to interact at school and in society they have to rely on charitable solutions as the state wants nothing to do with them any more.

The recession has been an excuse to enact some of the most severe austerity measures that have ever been brought about in this country, certainly since WW2, and has been shown to have caused massive social harm to those most in need. That's not even to mention the piecemeal selling off of the entire countries healthcare service, and the undervaluing and selling off of our postal service.

This government has had a seriously damaging impact on millions of people, causing very real social and even physical harm through their policies. To say otherwise is a failure to accept the present position this country is in.

Top post, burnibus.

Unfortunately, one of the major issues is that the three major UK parties are all slightly different shades of neo-conservatism these days, and smaller parties like the Greens don't attract enough support to form a credible alternative.

And fuck UKIP for their nasty rhetoric, poorly-veiled racism and for somehow having managed to present a white, middle-aged, wealthy former commodities trader as an 'alternative' or anti-establishment vote. What I've found really disheartening of late is that they seem to have been attracting a decent amount of support, albeit mostly from elderly folks and balding old white dudes. Fucking disheartening.

To borrow a line from Braveheart, the problem with politics is that its full of politicians. Left/right, doesn't matter, to be a willing participant in a process where reason, logic, and common sense are consistently trumped by leverage, disinformation, fearmongering, greed, etc., one must necessarily lie towards on the far end of the sociopathic spectrum. That humanity continues to let its most highly functional sociopaths shape the future will be our ultimate undoing.

That said, I hope the least deranged candidate in your respective constituencies wins.

In the meantime I'll be sitting here in the States, impotently watching our incumbent congressman - a grade-AAA certified asshole with a current approval rating of around 20% - easily get re-elected this fall. And so it goes.

I'll vote for whoever hates the EU the most. Not that it'll matter. At all.

I will agree that I am fortunate enough to be living in a fairly affluent area - Oxfordshire has survived fairly well during the recession (it is worth mentioning that I live in Dave Cameron's constituency?)

Despite the fairly well off nature of a lot of people living around here, the council is still completely broke having squandered all of our council tax money away in an Icelandic bank a few years ago. The roads around here are in complete ruins - I actually fear for my life when cycling and trying to avoid potholes / cars swerving potholes. Probably in worse conditions than any roads I have seen whilst driving around the country.

But all of that pales into insignificance when turning to caring for disabled loved ones or social service issues, I should consider myself one of the lucky ones then.

If Labour were to get back in, a different bunch of folks would be shit on from up on high and the whole process starts again. You cannot please all of the people all of the time, but you should look after the people who need you the most. In the conservatives case, they have certainly looked after their own more often than those in need.

Who remembers the alien vs. predator rip-off poster from the last general election?

Labour vs. Conservatives

Whoever wins;

We lose

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:45 PM, poblequadrat said:

Me I'm voting for IU (European Left). A bunch of revisionist shitheads, and they have done plenty of unforgivable things, but it's better to vote for them than to do nothing while the Le Pens and Farages get all the votes.

Oh man, right now they're not that bad cause they're the third team on a two-horse race, but give them more power and they'll fuck up just as much as the PPSOE.

I would vote for the X Party, just because, but I might as well deposit a turd in the ballot box. I'll vote for Empty Seats

  On 5/22/2014 at 7:18 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

 

  On 5/22/2014 at 1:45 PM, poblequadrat said:

Me I'm voting for IU (European Left). A bunch of revisionist shitheads, and they have done plenty of unforgivable things, but it's better to vote for them than to do nothing while the Le Pens and Farages get all the votes.

 

Oh man, right now they're not that bad cause they're the third team on a two-horse race, but give them more power and they'll fuck up just as much as the PPSOE.

 

I would vote for the X Party, just because, but I might as well deposit a turd in the ballot box. I'll vote for Empty Seats

 

I know, most (actually all?) people in my family have been PCE militants at some point, either during Francoism or afterwards, and all left in disappointment, although to this day all of them are still communists in some way or another, which really doesn't say anything good about IU/PCE.

But I don't know, the European Left will have the Syriza guy as their head, and besides, now that left-wing politics seems impossible, I think it wouldn't be bad if a party which claims to actually stand for communism became big. Surely they don't have the chops to bring a socialist economy about, but if people are disappointed it'll be because they've failed to socialise production and not because of pure frustration, hopelessness and lack of viable political ideas; so it'd still be a step forward IMO. I'm voting more as an act of propaganda than because I have any faith in the likes of Cayo Lara or, even worse, the Llamazares faction. The inner structure of IU is so old-school and stifling, I agree no true politics can come out of that.

  On 5/22/2014 at 2:06 PM, Gary C said:

I'm not voting.

 

Which means that my opinion on such matters is apparently less valid than those who will, so, bye.

Go and spoil your ballot. Maybe see if you can get a rolling lol going.

I went with the Greens (even if I don't like everything they do) in both European Election and local council, though I did chuck in a vote for the Trade Union & Socialist alliance as well just cause there is a real lack of any form of proper leftist representation in the UK these days and I need someone to push my rampant misguided ideologies.

Great going Europe, I guess everyone was missing the good times back when the nazis ruled?

So, in Spain it went as follows:

PP (Conservatives) - 16 seats

PSOE (Labour) - 14 seats

IU (Communist) - 6 seats

PODEMOS (Mix of charismatic TV guy and undercover Trotskites) - 5 seats

UPYD (Spanish unionists) - 4 seats

CEU (Conservative separatists) - 3 seats

EPPD (Left-wing separatists) - 2 seats

CS (Spanish unionists) - 2 seats

LPD (Left-wing separatists) - 1 seat

PE (Left-wing, some Greens, some separatists) - 1 seat

In Catalonia the results were drastically different:

ERC-EPPD (Left-wing separatists) - 23,6%

CEU-CIU (Conservative separatists) - 21,8%

PSC-PSOE (Labour) - 14,2%

ICV/EUIA-IU (Communist and Green alliance) - 10,2%

PP (Conservatives) - 9,81%

CS (Spanish unionists) - 6,28%

PODEMOS (Mix of charismatic TV guy and undercover Trotskites) - 4,66%

In Barcelona proper, where I voted, the results were pretty much the same as in the rest of Catalonia but the Communists actually got a few more votes than Labour.

i voted the one and only separatistic party available in germany.

  On 5/25/2014 at 11:45 PM, Gocab said:

Great going Europe, I guess everyone was missing the good times back when the nazis ruled?

you would think all the old people that voted for nazi cunts should all been dead by now ... oh wait, the people voting are in their mid 40's (thats fucking scary)