European Elections
 

Calling all Brits!

Who will you be voting for (or who did you vote for) in the European elections and why? I think I'm going to vote Lib Dem, because they're the most reasonable party with a chance of getting a seat in my area and they're pro-europe. If nothing else, that should even up the balance a bit.

I think Conservatives as they seem to have the best view on Europe i.e. a prominent role but not leading towards a single European country.

my dad lives here in the US but he's still a spanish citizen so we got these in the mail a couple days ago. he did it randomly and had everyone else in the family choose one face down and everysingle one of use including him got the green party so thats what he's going with

The Tories are leaning Eurosceptic to the extreme right now, as they feel so threatened by the UKIP. John Prescott said it very well, standing in PMQs yesterday:

I'm a Lib Dem.

Not a Brit, I'll be voting on sunday: Liberal Democrats (Belgian Flemmish variant, part of the ELDR group in the EU parliament) :)

not a brit, but:
it's yourope!

Although i can't vote until the general elections, i'd have probably gone for UKIP, the tories have just lost their mojo.

I'm a Labour supporter but my "protest" vote went to the Greens.

I might as well make my statement on an election which has little impact as opposed to next years General Election.

The significant support for the UK Independence Party is one which has been of great interest (if not of particular surprise) to me. Admittedly, my understanding of the issues surrounding our participation in the EU is fairly limited, but it seems to me that we have a greater chance of independence in Europe than we do out of it.

Europe is essentially democratic. By being part of Europe, we would have as much say as every one else. Just as by voting in general elections, you are not being ruled by the rest of the country, but simply participating in a national democratic system.

However, as things stand, we are unofficially politically and economically linked with the US. Since these links are unofficial and the US is the more powerful country, they have far more say over us than we do over them. We are effectively their subjects. A truly unified Europe would actually be more powerful than the US and consequently the most powerful 'state' in the world. Surely being an active part of it would lend us more independence than simply floating around on our own, taking orders from a foreign state.

btw, to all the other Europeans on this thread, I wasn't meaning to exclude you by saying 'calling all brits, it's just that on the poll, you are only allowed 10 options, which wasn't even enough to fit all the british parties in, so I figured it only really applied to Britain. Feel free to vote if an equivalent to your party is listed up there.

Well the results are in and both major parties have fared badly whilst the UKIP and Lib Dems have gained.

I think now Tny Blair should take notice of these results and the council elections on Thursday and realise two major points.

1. People do not want soldiers in Iraq and did not support the war, hence the increase in Lib Dem vote.

2. People are against the European Constitution and the continuation of the march towards a single European country as shown by the increased UKIP vote.

Will he listen though? And what will the Tories do about the UKIP eating into their votes?

What do people think?

To be fair the increase in Lib Dem support was hardly impressive. They in fact only managed forth position behind UKIP. Doesn't say much for the views of the electorate on soldiers in Iraq.

Secondly the increase in UKIP. I think you will find that UKIP gained the largest proportion of their votes from the conservatives. I think this says much more about the current Tory policies then it does about the Labour pro-European viewpoint.

He is supposed to be a socialist. I know most of the time he seems to lose this ideology but I really doubt that this increase in UKIPs popularity is going to change the entire Labour ideology of Britain being at the heart of Europe. In fact I respect him more for following his parties beliefs as apposed to trying to make the Euro-Sceptic newspapers happy and those people who form political stances by reading only them.