Wednesday 28 May 2014

European Election Shockers



The European election of the last few days have thrown up a lot of shocks in more than one country.

Here in the UK the biggest winners were the dreaded UKIP. Even a large percentage of people who voted for them have said they'd not vote for them to run the country in the main general election. They've said they want them to kerb the influx of immigration but haven't really thought things through, I don't think a lot of them have looked at the other policies UKIP are for in Europe, or more accurately what they are against. I am firmly of the opinion that being part of the EU is of benefit for us and if we leave it will cause a whole of of disruption and money loss.

UKIP came from nowhere in the rankings, and other fringe groups did well, Green won a lot more seats including here in Bristol - up from 3 to 6. The main parties mostly made a loss with Lib Dems doing worst of all, they lost a lot of confidence in the public. Parties are complaining the media had a lot to do with it, giving too much coverage to UKIP and less to others such as the Lib Dems. But that doesn't explain it all as so much that was shown was the worst of them, how biased and misogynistic so many party members are, accusations of racism running rife and other such insults. I fear for their term in office in the European Parliament, what will they oppose, what will they request? Members of the public are so disillusioned they've voted for the 'man in the street' forgetting he's from the background so many actually despise with the attitude and opinions they actually dislike. People can be easily swayed, sadly.

In other countries there were shockers with the National Front winning in France ousting Sarcozi. Germany managed to hold on to Angela Merkal though there are still complaints of immigration there. A neo-nazi was voted in, though, Udo Voigt who called Adolf Hitler a 'great man' and once urged voters to take up armed combat. Greece voted in radical left wing parties and have also won themselves 3 of the neo-nazi Golden Dawn politicians, while other members of this party are still in prison on murder and other serious crime charges. Poland have voted in a man, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who has said 'women are dumber than men and should not be allowed to vote' and wants to remove their right to it. Sweden voted in a woman who won by going to people's homes and chatting to them rather than using the usual method of advertising and big campaigns, a feminist who founded the Feminist Initiative party only 2 years ago.

Italy had a large turnout of voters, more than usual, and they voted for Renzi, a young leader for Italy, the youngest since Unification days in fact, the leader of the PD the Democratic Party. The Democrats won by a large margin pushing the next party's vote down which was the Five Star Movement lead by Beppe Grillo who is actually a comedian when not politicing. There are rumours Grillo didn't win as he didn't smile enough. The party previously led by Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia did badly with only 16%. Renzi is very pro Europe although there is a lot of anti Europe talk by the general public in Italy, maybe at heart they know being part of the Union is a good thing all round. Renzi also talks a lot about reforms he wants to make in Italy, he has big words to say about change including in the overstuffed parliament, far too many politicians who are often well over paid. We will see how he does it, if he does it.

The European Parliament has many strong characters with many very different agendas, polar opposites in fact. How will they come to any conclusions is hard to tell right now. Maybe they will all cancel each other out and the EU will stay moderate after all.

5 comments:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Daydreamer ..thanks for updating me with some of the info .. I know UKIP are going to be an interesting negative in the scheme of things.

I didn't know anything about how the EU works .. and I was out of the country for years ... but now should be no excuse ... however some European Movement members (non-political) were handing out leaflets about their meetings .. and I was interested.

I learnt a great deal about how the EU works etc .. and that we need to be in it .. and can't be like Norway out of it ...

Any trade Norway does with EU members must still comply with EU regulations .. but they have no say or negotiation powers as they're not in the EU.

I heard the UKIP Agricultural MEP on Farming Today saying they were going to abstain on some points .. but as the interviewer said .. that wouldn't help anyone .. those that voted would have a stronger vote ...

Still it's all very new and I guess they'll realise they cannot do many or most of the things they want to ...

However we do need to get away from the carping ... but the method of getting news over in sound bites and tabloid headlines .. doesn't educate any of us .. it's all one sided and opinionated and only telling one microscopic part of the story ...

Thanks for writing this down and setting out so much info ..

I still don't know much .. but I did hear the Young European Movement President, who is studying at Cambridge, give the 2nd talk I've been to ...

The apathetic country needs to vote ... even friends I know didn't vote: I was horrified ... it's better to have a sensible say for whichever party, than a non-vote which supports the upstarts ..

Still - and then next is the Scottish vote .. interesting times ... thanks for this post - Hilary

DayDreamer said...

I didn't realise Norway was not in the EU yet still have to comply with their regulations. If we were to leave then it might be the same for us. I wonder how many Euro sceptics would know the answer to that.

The point you made about the UKIP Agricultural MEP is one we'll hear more of I suspect as when they were in office before they rarely went to any meetings at all. That's basically their stance, ignore the EU as much as possible, their MEPs didn't even go to Brussels most of the time.

It's a big shame when we have the right and safety to vote in certain countries and so many don't use it, when others risk their lives for the chance. I know how people say they are too disillusioned with politicians, etc but not even trying to make a difference is shocking.

The Scottish vote is getting closer. It must be a hard decision to make for them, it's one vote I'm glad I don't need to make myself, actually.

Thank you for your lovely comment, Hilary.

-blessed holy socks said...

I draw-like-a-‘nom-de-plume’ our long-years-of-faith -2- decipher the voracious veracity -2- make a perfectly cognizant, fully-spectacular, Son-ripened-Heaven… yet, I’m not sure if we're on the same page if you saw what I saw. Greetings, earthling. Because I was an actual NDE on the outskirts of the Great Beyond at 15 yet wasn’t allowed in GRRR lemme share with you what I actually know Seventh-Heaven’s Big-Bang’s gonna be like: meet this advanced, bombastic, mortal Upstairs for the most extra-groovy-paradox, pleasure-beyond-measure, Yummy-Reality-Addiction in the Great Beyond for a BIG-ol, kick-ass, party-hardy, robust-N-risqué, eternal-warp-drive you DO NOT wanna miss the sink-your-teeth-in-the-rrrock’nNsmmmokin’-hot-deal. YES! For God, anything and everything and more! is possible!! Cya soon…

ABC Mobile Institute of Technology said...

love these type posts keep this type of posts. lovely work keep this work up.


LED LCD Repairing institute
led lcd tv repairing institute in delhi
LED LCD Repairing Course
Laptop on rent in noida

anki said...

that looks like a great blog love this type of blogs.

Laptop on rent in noida
lcd led repairing institute in laxmi nagar