European Parliament 2014 elections

[Semicolon]

It seems unbalanced to me. Why are there so many liberal parties and only one conservative party (not counting the EPP)?

Thoughts on the elections?

[odeon]

Many people here don't care enough to vote. Indifference creates an imbalance, I think.

[bodie]

I respond to this thinking of myself as British AND European.  There are too many conservative parties.  One is too many 

The most concerning thing to me is UKip.  They have tapped into peoples fears and used it for political gain.  They are further right than the conservatives.  They see Britain through tinted glasses.  They want Britain to stand alone.  It is my view they are living in the past.  The British Empire is long gone.

Don't get me wrong.  I love our history.  Britain is so tiny in geographical terms, and yet we stomped through history using cunning and such violence - always punching above our weight.  Perhaps that violence and general pig headedness was befitting for those times,  but those days are gone. 

I tell the urchin about our history.  They are great stories.  He is wide eyed when i tell him about Trafalgar.  What an awesome sight that would have been,  to see HMS Victory and the one armed Horatio Nelson.  The French and the Spanish had joined forces and were on their way to invade us and we shoved it right up them     Brilliant!  However I always remind him that those days are gone.  Good riddance!

UKip still think of Britain in those terms.  They see close affiliation with old enemies such as France and Germany as some kind of betrayal to our past.  They see other countries in the European union as not good enough.  Countries like Bulgaria, for example.  It reminds me of kiddies in the playground  "you can't play with us because you don't wear the latest trainers"   

The thing that really seems bizarre to me is how they target anyone on benefits as the reason behind our problems.  I do not understand the need to target people who are very poor, who have to sleep six in a room, and wish to take away what little they have.  It is the banks and the financial institutions that have caused many of our problems.  Target those big companies who are tax dodgers?

Breaking free from Europe will not magically transform Britain.  It will make things harder.

[Semicolon]

In America, we have our own stories about the British Empire.

To be honest, the European Conservatives and Reformists don't seem that conservative to me. I know that we have a different definition of conservatism in America, but it seems like the party is more liberal than some American liberals. Without the conservatives, which party will push for small government?

[ZEGH8578]

Bodie, being interested in history, including what has been going on on your own soil, has nothing - NOTHING - to do with politics, so never apologize for being interested in history, and don't do such a silly connection again, please

They _play on that tho_, they lure people in, saying "you care about your country, don't you?" "well yes :0 i like moose!" "Well there you go, we arent so different after all, you and me! SIEG HEIL!"

But in the real world, there is NO need - whatsoever - to apologize for liking your own country, or being fascinated with its history. It does not associate you in any way with nationalist extremes at ALL!

[Lestat]

For us engrish folk, I don't see how anybody with a conscience that is at some stage of evolutionary development above and beyond a nowadays-nonfunctional atavistic, vestigial remnant.

It has been shown, TIME and TIME AGAIN, that every single time that either lib dem and the tories (both a festering nidus of grasping, snotnosed moneygrubbing upper-crust lickspittles) and shameless outright LIARS. Cannot be trusted. Same goes for the last couple of labour PMs.

Tony Bliar (sp. intentional) obviously, was solely out to push the rest of his party down a few pegs in that sadly universal competition to slither further up the greasy pole of political power, monetary gain, personal secrecy, and generally made it abundantly clear to the rest of us lumpenproletariat, that he would make any promises and give any guarantees of what the populace wanted/deserved....For just sufficient time to get his manifesto accepted, and his oleaginous grin kept hidden for that time.

The moment he got elected, he just systematically reneged on what was promised to the electorate, while he swanned around filling his pockets, consolidating his fortune and investments, and generally doing whatever suited the Bliar family  best. Tell the electorate one thing to get elected, then turn round im just that manner an angry saw scaled viper does. Gain trust, then turn round to bite us all in the arse, fuck up our economy, and I'm not even going to go into his warmongering, and war crimes/crimes against humanity.

All the main three we have now, lab, lib-dem and tory are just the same noxious pathogen, only with slightly different antigenic recognition sites.

Liars, Thieves, Supporters of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. And none of the lib/lab/con have refrained from showing those selfsame greed-driven tendencies, creaming the best of everything off the top whilst leaving the general citizen struggling, even with the upturn in the economy under the coalition.

Fact of the matter is, that the up-until-most recently; we in england/wales had the choice between labour (tony, Brown, and the obligatory cronies seeing good opportunity to become for want of a better analogy, (sub/ab-human versions of those remora fish that suck onto  large powerful aquatic life ( where they eat parasitic infestations that the larger species cannot easily remote.
who will tell those of us not lucky enough to have rich inheritances and land/property assets bequeathed us, tell us all is fine 'we the gubernment always know best, just do what we say not what we do, we power-mongering fruitcakes always know best, which is better for you stupid plebian classes. After all the public never is willingly given the whole set of data upon which to base their rathoanally arrived-at, if incorrect, due to the availability of only partial datapoints

[Dexter Morgan]

I think a lot of EU countries have to take a good look at themselves and understand why the sentiment for far-right parties is so big.  This means more than just labeling them as racist and reactionary. If there is one advantage the right has, it is that they know their enemy on a much deeper level than the left does.

[bodie]

Bodie, being interested in history, including what has been going on on your own soil, has nothing - NOTHING - to do with politics, so never apologize for being interested in history, and don't do such a silly connection again, please

They _play on that tho_, they lure people in, saying "you care about your country, don't you?" "well yes :0 i like moose!" "Well there you go, we arent so different after all, you and me! SIEG HEIL!"

But in the real world, there is NO need - whatsoever - to apologize for liking your own country, or being fascinated with its history. It does not associate you in any way with nationalist extremes at ALL!

@zegh
Ah I agree.  Sometimes the goings on in my head do not match the words I write.  I went off on a tangent because some old UKip fart out canvassing for votes had made a visit to my mum.  I started going on about Nelson because he had quoted Nelson to my mum.
The quote was "You must hate all frenchmen like you hate the devil"
Now, i believe Nelson did say something like that but it annoyed me because wtf does it have to do with today?  Also, it was something he said as he was about to go into battle with the french and the spanish.  He had lost one arm and the sight of one eye in previous altercations with the french.  In other words the phrase was appropriate for that occasion but ffs why quote it now?   To drum up nostalgic thoughts about the good old days to win votes 

It is lame and weak and to my horror it seems to be working.  UKip are more popular than the Lib Dems.  The only good thing about this is how it has shocked the other parties.  They all needed a kick up the jacksy.  I just hope people bother to read the UKip manifesto before they vote for them in the main general election. 

They are the 'standing at the back dressed stupidly and looking stupid party' (blackadder ) and have made the most ridiculous statements.  Recently Farage told an audience that women are 'worth less' in the workplace.  Another UKip nutter said there was no such thing as 'marital rape' and that women should not be allowed to wear trousers as it discourages love making!  Oh and they were outraged and cried 'conspiracy' about being at the bottom of the ballot paper.  Until they were told it was in alphatebical order!  (perhaps they should reinvent themselves as the aardvark party hehe)

[ZEGH8578]

Bodie, being interested in history, including what has been going on on your own soil, has nothing - NOTHING - to do with politics, so never apologize for being interested in history, and don't do such a silly connection again, please

They _play on that tho_, they lure people in, saying "you care about your country, don't you?" "well yes :0 i like moose!" "Well there you go, we arent so different after all, you and me! SIEG HEIL!"

But in the real world, there is NO need - whatsoever - to apologize for liking your own country, or being fascinated with its history. It does not associate you in any way with nationalist extremes at ALL!

@zegh
Ah I agree.  Sometimes the goings on in my head do not match the words I write.  I went off on a tangent because some old UKip fart out canvassing for votes had made a visit to my mum.  I started going on about Nelson because he had quoted Nelson to my mum.
The quote was "You must hate all frenchmen like you hate the devil"
Now, i believe Nelson did say something like that but it annoyed me because wtf does it have to do with today?  Also, it was something he said as he was about to go into battle with the french and the spanish.  He had lost one arm and the sight of one eye in previous altercations with the french.  In other words the phrase was appropriate for that occasion but ffs why quote it now?   To drum up nostalgic thoughts about the good old days to win votes 

It is lame and weak and to my horror it seems to be working.  UKip are more popular than the Lib Dems.  The only good thing about this is how it has shocked the other parties.  They all needed a kick up the jacksy.  I just hope people bother to read the UKip manifesto before they vote for them in the main general election. 

They are the 'standing at the back dressed stupidly and looking stupid party' (blackadder ) and have made the most ridiculous statements.  Recently Farage told an audience that women are 'worth less' in the workplace.  Another UKip nutter said there was no such thing as 'marital rape' and that women should not be allowed to wear trousers as it discourages love making!  Oh and they were outraged and cried 'conspiracy' about being at the bottom of the ballot paper.  Until they were told it was in alphatebical order!  (perhaps they should reinvent themselves as the aardvark party hehe)

stupidity works, because it makes a politician "more grounded", like how Americans loved the hell out of G Bush "he us a man of the people!" an ignorant prick? "yes yes exactly!"

['andersom']

I wonder if extreme right overdid their stupidity in my country.

At council collections, they did well, in the two councils they participated in. Ending their victory with shouting choirs that there were going to be less Moroccans in the Netherlands. And with the party leader saying in his speech too that he did not care much about how he did in local elections, because Europe was what was important. They lost a seat in Europe.

All the strife within the party is not helping him either, nor the news that he let the parliament burst a couple of years ago, not because of political reasons, but because of problems in his own party.

Does not bring down the extreme right wing sentiments, but for now, the popularity of the party is down a bit.




European elections are ignored, not only by plenty of the voters, but also by the political parties themselves, where I live. I hardly noticed any campaigning. It is a miracle that still so many people voted.

It seems unbalanced to me. Why are there so many liberal parties and only one conservative party (not counting the EPP)?

Thoughts on the elections?

Liberal can be right wing liberal, or left wing liberal. Socialists can come in progressive and conservative shape. The words liberal and conservative have a different notion here than in the USA. Probably a very different notion in every European country participating in the European Union.

[ZEGH8578]

The extreme right being opposed to intelligence is nothing new. In the past, it has been even more overt, it is even something you can read up on, for example on wiki - the relationship between far-right idealism - and its acceptance of "intellectualism"

During a Spanish falangist (fascist) gathering, one of them yelled "Death to intelligence! Long live death!" to which the crowds roared in approval.
"Intelligence" does not mean something else here, they are basically celebrating the destruction of cleverness, smartness, the use of ones brain, since that is seen as "weak", not macho, etc. Further specifications indicate that intelligence is not always unwanted for fascists, but it has to be "applicable intelligence".

Needless to say, the "real reason" intelligence is so loathed by the far right, is that intelligence is all it takes to see all of their flaws -.-

['andersom']

The extreme right being opposed to intelligence is nothing new. In the past, it has been even more overt, it is even something you can read up on, for example on wiki - the relationship between far-right idealism - and its acceptance of "intellectualism"

During a Spanish falangist (fascist) gathering, one of them yelled "Death to intelligence! Long live death!" to which the crowds roared in approval.
"Intelligence" does not mean something else here, they are basically celebrating the destruction of cleverness, smartness, the use of ones brain, since that is seen as "weak", not macho, etc. Further specifications indicate that intelligence is not always unwanted for fascists, but it has to be "applicable intelligence".

Needless to say, the "real reason" intelligence is so loathed by the far right, is that intelligence is all it takes to see all of their flaws -.-

Something else is happening too.

Extreme right wing is more than just the fascist ideas. Some of their ideas make sense, and are along the ideas of some other parties that do not thrive on hate and fear.
But, those ideas, even when they make complete sense, will be voted down, because it is the extreme right party proposing them.

Looks like other parties now and then change their program, not because of what they want it to be, but because they want to be different than the right wing party.

[ZEGH8578]

The extreme right being opposed to intelligence is nothing new. In the past, it has been even more overt, it is even something you can read up on, for example on wiki - the relationship between far-right idealism - and its acceptance of "intellectualism"

During a Spanish falangist (fascist) gathering, one of them yelled "Death to intelligence! Long live death!" to which the crowds roared in approval.
"Intelligence" does not mean something else here, they are basically celebrating the destruction of cleverness, smartness, the use of ones brain, since that is seen as "weak", not macho, etc. Further specifications indicate that intelligence is not always unwanted for fascists, but it has to be "applicable intelligence".

Needless to say, the "real reason" intelligence is so loathed by the far right, is that intelligence is all it takes to see all of their flaws -.-

Something else is happening too.

Extreme right wing is more than just the fascist ideas. Some of their ideas make sense, and are along the ideas of some other parties that do not thrive on hate and fear.
But, those ideas, even when they make complete sense, will be voted down, because it is the extreme right party proposing them.

Looks like other parties now and then change their program, not because of what they want it to be, but because they want to be different than the right wing party.

This reminds me of a common tactic I've observed on forums and such, where extreme right-wingers will lure many to sympathize with them, by changing the subject, and talking about something everyone can agree on - animal welfare is a common topic.
When it comes down to it, most of their agenda is not all that malevolent. It is just that ultimately, they subscribe to the forceful removal and destruction of people, often by generic means. This is what makes them stand out - their insisting on the idea of mass killing/removal of people. It is their hallmark.

[bodie]

The UKip party have a message and a lot of people identify with it.  Keep Britain British.  I have no problem with people with that viewpoint.  It seems sensible, although I don't think that way.   What gets me is the complete nutters who attach themselves to a party like UKip.  Some of them hold some bizarre views.  The far right are nutter magnets for sure.

Most of it is mildly amusing,  like 'women should not be allowed to wear trousers'  but then you get extreme stuff like recently a Ukip MP had his facebook account banned because he wrote about deporting all immigrants and that muslim women should all be hung and questions asked later  (eh,  so deporting is not enough and you feel the need to commit mass murder, and why just women?)  Nutter!

It actually made me think about if this guy would actually DO IT    or if he was just a load of hot air.   I don't really know what kind of terrible, life changing tragedy a person would endure to adopt a mindset like this 

The more left you go the more batshit crazy too.  Red Rob was a trade union leader at the old Rover car factory and the story goes that he called the workforce on strike because of the quality of the toilet paper.   

[ZEGH8578]

of course he would do it!
of COURSE!

He wouldn't do it, if he could get in trouble for it, but remove those factors - then OF COURSE!!! OF COURSE!!!

I am baffled at this mentality that "surely people wouldn't kill people" OF COURSE they would!!!

One problem, I think, is that most people simply aren't aware of enough examples of wanton mass-murder in politics. They can only think of the holocaust, and they think of it as an exception. Genocide is so, so natural, and it is always only a breath away in various places in the world. The last time people were massacred in the western world, systematically massacred, civilians on trucks, civilians in sport stadiums, systematic executions, sadistic executions, etc, was in 1997, in Georgia (Abkhazia)

1997!!!

People were put into trucks, taken to sports stadiums, and massacred with machine-guns and hand grenades, as well as being summarily executed in their homes and back yards.
Stories contain horrific details, such as a mother being forced to eat the carved out eye of her baby boy (to which she passed out)
upto ten thousand killed, hundreds of thousands chased out of the region.

UN knew about it. Did you?
(not having ago at you, by asking if you knew, rather pointing to the lack of media coverage, of what most definitely should be covered!)

Edit: Got the year wrong, but it is still the most recent western-world state sanctioned civilian-massacre I can think of. Sanctioned by the Abkhaz separatist state.