Those of us who had hoped for a radical shift in the political landscape - be that toward the Eurosceptics and nationalists, or toward the eco-friendly leftie types - will be disappointed again it seems. Except perhaps in the Netherlands, where the anti-immigrant nutters seem to have done quite well. Worrying, but again not entirely surprising (particularly in Holland).
So now we wait. And hope. Is the turnout high enough to negate the knuckle-draggers' votes for racists? It doesn't look good. How will Cameron's MEPs get on in their new post-EPP alliance with homophobes, climate change deniers, and the like? Bearing in mind there aren't that many of them, I'd guess not too well.
I can barely bring myself to look. It's bad enough that we elect these idiots domestically, but to send them out to represent us internationally is severely embarrassing.
Still - one good thing has come of all this: the chance to have another laugh at the idiots at UKIP, the party of racists who shop at M&S. Given the extreme length of the ballot paper this time around, poor old UKIP found their small band of intellectually challenged followers were unable to deal with a fold in a piece of paper. Hm - and they want to determine whether or not we remain in the world's largest trading bloc. I don't think so.
Now I'm off to watch Gordon reshuffle his cabinet. If he has any MPs left.
Extremely depressing early news from Essex:
ReplyDeletehttp://bnp.org.uk/2009/06/first-results-from-county-and-local-council-elections/
MPs have been on a gravy train since Parliament was established, no question. Did people really believe there wasn't a significant number of MPs who wouldn't milk the system for all it was worth? I think there is a certain percentage of people who will abuse ANY system, whether or not they are politicians. I don't know if there is anything inherently bad about politicians. They are just people like the rest of us. Sure there are probably those who got into it knowing they would be in a position to abuse their power and prepared to do so. But I think there are probably more who got into politics because they really wanted to change things for the better, in the way they saw fit. The REAL problem is that MPs have been allowed to run their own system and make their own rules for too long. I think the public, as usual, have let themselves get worked into a frenzy by the media. The media have sold a lot of papers on this scandal and they are milking it for all it's worth. There are SO many things going on in the country much more serious and wasteful than MP's expenses. What this expenses scandal has done more than anything else is remind me that people are sheep.
ReplyDeleteVery true. Just check how much money has been wasted on PFI, or Trident, in comparison to the expenses scandal.
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