let me climb on my soapbox for a minute

[suryaofvulcan]

35%

That's the proportion of registered voters who could actually be bothered to turn out and vote on Thursady. Which means that 65% felt they had something more important to do than spend half an hour of their day deciding who would run their local council and who would represent them in Europe. On the 20th anniversary of the day people died in

Comments

[sparkindarkness]

So many people don't take these elections seriously

And that's why the BN fucking P and UKIP and the other disgusting nazis get in power - because only the crazed extremsist bother to vote, the mainstream doesn't give a damn

But, while the Parliament doesn't have a lot of power - to ignore the MEPS is bewildering. So much power and policy is now coming from the EU (and I approve. Hell, I approve of European statehood - but that may get me lynched admitting in publc) that ignoring them and treating them like council elections is truly insane

Today we have an MEP in Brussels representing me. He was elected from my region. And he is BNP. He is representing me - YE GODS I cannot describe how much this sickens me

[suryaofvulcan]

It's a sad day when extremists think, 'I've got to get out there and make my vote count,' while the mainstream voter thinks, 'Somebody else will do it for me.'

It's still crazier when you think that those people who didn't go out and vote on Thursday are probably the same ones who pay for the privilege of voting for their favourite contestant on Big Brother, Britain's Got Talent or Strictly Come Dancing. It boggles the mind.

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised the BNP got in (although I feel for you Sparky - I'm really glad they didn't win in my region). And as you say the European election was important - for one thing it shows our neighbours who we are. I'm also in favour of European statehod - as a stepping stone to one world government. (No lynchings here.) 90% of the legislation I deal with is European in origin - it has a huge impact

[suryaofvulcan]

Yes. I think women in particular have a duty to vote. It's less than a century since we achieved equal suffrage with men. Not voting is like thumbing our noses at our grandmothers who protested and fought and yes died so that we could have an equal say.

[indehed]

well said. We've been having this discussing since yesterday at work. We only had the euro votes and 25% turnout in this area.

Now, this is a stronghold for two parties so it would always be a dogfight between them and it was. And every vote counts when it comes down to SNP or Tories here. Tactical voting is what is always called for.

The BNP got 600 votes though. That's worrying for a 25% turn out. I never knew this area was a dickish as that.

You almost want to ask everyone when they complain... 'did you vote?' and when they say no... then tell them they have no right to complain.

[suryaofvulcan]

25% in dismal. That means 3 out of 4 people thought, 'Nah, I can't be bothered.' And as for the 600 who thought the BNP was a good choice ... words fail me. I heard a woman interviewed on TV yesterday saying, 'Well I don't think they're as bad as they were a few years ago - back then they were all Nazis, but now it's just about immigration.' Stupid bint. The message is still the same - it's just that their PR is better.

[nx_01hreod]

I have been ranting about this - mostly to myself - ever since Thursday. I honestly don't understand how anyone can not bother to vote. People have suffered and died to get us the right to take part in out government, how can you just throw that away?!

The extremists were not elected by the people who voted for them; they were elected by those who didn't bother to vote at all. Bastards!

And to cap it all Cameron (not my party!) is proposing to withdraw the Conservative MEPs from the grouping of centre-right parties in the EU Parliament and form a new group with Eurosceptic rightwing parties, many of which are anit-gay, anti-abortion etc.

Do these people who want to take us out of Europe not realise just how much we benefit from being members, or do they just not care?

I'm in a deeply Conservative area, but we're also liberally splattered with UKIP posters. If they didn't (probably wisely) stick them so high up I'd be stopping the car every few minutes to pull them down!

[suryaofvulcan]

Cameron - yes, well at least the conservative party is big enough to cover a broad spectrum of opinion. There will be many who disagree with this move, and there's enough of a democratic structure within the party that their voices will be heard.

And Europe takes a lot of flak generally for stuff that either isn't mandatory (in other words, our government has chosen to implement it) or is just plain made up by the press. When I'm out on visits at work I get a lot of people who say, 'I suppose this is all some new European regulation,' when in fact Europe is now deregulating a lot of stuff in my area of work. When i tell them that, they usually don't want to know.

[nx_01hreod]

Don't start me on the press and their practice of making stuff up just to pander to the tastes of their readers!

People still go on about too-bendy bananas, offal filled tubes etc as though it were all fact. And they often don't believe you if you point out that it wasn't true in the first place.

On a brighter note, I see that the BNP leader Griffin has been pelted with eggs and forced to run for his car. :)