Dismal results in European elections
June 10, 2009
Politicians and political anlaysts are picking the bones out of the European elections. In the UK, the Labour government moved quickly into damage control claiming that the astoundingly poor results for the Labour Party didn't really mean that the electorate wanted to get rid of the government but rather that the „people“ didn't like the form of elections in the UK. That is to say, that people don't like the „first pass the post system“ and would rather have a transferable vote form of system. This is patent nonsense; the dismal election results are a direct reflection of three things; the government's handling of the MP expenses scandal; the economy; the EU itself. The government would prefer a transferable vote system because that hinders changes of government and perpetuates the incompetence of governments and, most particularly, allows MPs to get into parliament and government without ever being elected by means of the „List“ system.Besides the poor showing of Labur in the UK, another feature of these elections was the very low turnout. One well-known British satirist has bemoaned the current performance of the government because „it's beyond satire.“ So is the reaction of politicians to both the poll results and the low turnout. Politicians simply repeat the refrain that politicians are simply not getting the message across without ever stopping to consider that perhaps people have got the message very clearly and simply don't like it. By no stretch of the imagination can the EU government be considered to be democratic; when countries such as Ireland reject a treaty the message goes out from Brussels „make them vote again“ …. until they get the result they want. In the case of the UK, the promised referendum was simply not permitted. And if the UK MPs enjoyed a lavish gravy train with no accountability and many barriers to finding out what is being claimed, the MEPs enjoy an even more lavish expenses system with auditors who dare to question it simply being sacked if they're luck and prosecuted if they're unluck.
Talking about turnout, Slovakia had the dubious honour of having the lowest turnout, just creeping above 10% with Lithuania at 20.5% and Poland at 24%. Reasons given are that the EU parliament is an irrelevance to most people; distant, remote, out of touch, over-paid and over-there. A recent survey of Poles indicated that two thirds of the respoindents felt that politicians lied to them, which makes you wonder about the one third who didn't believe that politicians lied to them.
One reason why centre-right and left parties are concerned about these elections is that a lot of votes went to the extremist parties on the right and left. The UK returned two BNP members but few of the mainstream politicians have stopped to consider why. The concern expressed is far more serious than the situation warrants. It's probably the case that those two politicians are no more and no less capable than many of the existing MEPs and that their election is an aberration, an expression of a desire to deliver a really sharp blow to the Labour government for their ineptness.
The answer to the low turnout and to the return of extremist parties is very simple. Brussels has to cut out the graft; cut out the waste of money; cut out the undemocratic and inappropriate laws which are forced on people who don't need them and don't want them.
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