All fair minded people would surely agree that the British are revolting. The daily news shames an ever longer list of Members of Parliament who have been caught fiddling their expenses.
British European deputies and Eurosceptics demonstrate referendum during the vote abount the Lisbon treaty at the European Parliament.
Some have gone wild and got the taxpayer to buy and furnish several homes, others have claimed for items that seem unrelated to their work, in a glorious affirmation of the English country gentleman, this has included cleaning moats, buying duck islands and other eccentricities.
At the other end, some of the claims are pathetically small, such as buying a mars bar and one male MP even claimed for two boxes of tampons. We’ve has some strange sexual hi jinks from our honorable members in the past, so it’s best not to speculate on the reason he bought those items.
As the ordinary Brit faces the financial crisis and the threat of unemployment a quiet, very British anger has erupted to the centre of the political scene. The first casualty was the Speaker, who was gently pushed onto his sword. Many MP’s are hiding from the wrath of their constituents and parties are taking a sudden interest in reform.
What has this got to do with Europe? Nobody is quite sure, but it could affect the European Parliamentary elections as angry voters might turn out and show their displeasure on June 4th. The main beneficiaries are likely to be the Liberal Democrats, the least damaged of the big three parties and a frequent home for the discerning protest voter. The Greens poll numbers are also rising and the rest are thought to go to eurosceptics. This end of the political spectrum has got rather crowded and here’s a run through of the electoral choices for the sceptical.
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) They arrived with twelve MEP’s and left with eight. Their declared intention was to ’smash up’ the EU. This looks like it might take more than one parliamentary term. On the plus side, their biggest advantage is their brand recognition.They do have a leader who is very good with the media. They have also had some successes in exposing some of the more outrageous practices in the EU. On the down side, there are real divisions in the party and personal relations between the leadership is, at best, rocky. They are also let down by the eccentricities of some of their representatives. Popularity has been rising, but Farage’s claim that he had used over 2 million euro’s of expenses to fund the party may lose him some support.
British National Party (BNP) Not to be confused with the French bank, or indeed, anything foreign. They claim not to be racist, but only offer membership to “indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of ‘Indigenous Caucasian’”. The party was set up in 1982 by John “Mein Kampf is my bible” Tyndall. One quote from Tyndall explains their philosophy, “Hitler was right”. One aspect of the right-of-sanity parties is that everyone wants to be Fuhrer and so it came to pass that current leader Nick Griffin took over. His plan was to tone down the anti-semitism and play on islamic terrorism in a plan to take the electoral path to power. There is considerable opposition to this ’selling out’ of their principles and there could be a split (again!) or a challenge, should they fail to get any MEP’s.
England First Party (EFP) A splinter group from the BNP who left because the BNP was too inclusive. They support “The abolition of all non-European faiths and religions along with the removal of all their mosques and temples.” And Christianity was founded, where?
English Democrats Party (EDP) are, oddly, campaigning for an English parliament and a referendum on EU membership.
No2EU is a trade union funded party are against the Lisbon Treaty and vow not to take their seats, should they win any.
Socialist Labour Party (SLP) was set up by legendary miners union leader, Arthur Scargill and want to withdraw from the EU as it’s all a big capitalist plot.
