It is European Parliamentary Election time again and this has meant that assorted “election communications” have come through the letterbox. I send in a postal vote which means that I get some advance notice of those who are standing. I am not left lurking at the polling station, faced with a list of people I have never heard of or from, apart from representatives of the main parties.
This year several independent candidates are standing and, thanks to the scandal of MPs’ expenses, they are likely to get more votes that they bargained for when they opted to become involved in the process. The UK’s electorate are in the mood to punish. The three main parties are likely to feel the full force of the average voter’s anger but smaller parties, some of whom have yet to win seats in the UK’s Parliament, are bound to gain from this situation.
The British National Party has made the most of it and their representatives have been heard and seen on the mainstream broadcast media. They usually shun the BNP but the fact that many people are openly stating that they will vote for a party that claims “It’s not racist to oppose mass immigration and political correctness - it‘s common sense!” means that they have to be seen to be fair and give them some air time. There isn’t a single foreign sounding name on their list of candidates, in contrast to the other parties, and their leaflet only features white faces.
It proclaims a “New Battle of Britain” and to this end includes an image of a Spitfire, the aircraft most associated with the desperate hours of World War 2 when Britain faced invasion from the forces of Nazi Germany. Unfortunately for whoever put the leaflet together the actual Spitfire shown has been identified as that flown by Jan Zumbach, a pilot of the Polish Fighter Squadron. Elsewhere the leaflet includes references to other conflicts in which the UK could not have managed without foreign help, namely D-Day (USA) and the Falklands (the Gurkhas and a number of others from Commonwealth countries who chose to join the UK’s armed forces). They also mention the Somme (to this day no one can be sure who really won) and Dunkirk (a major evacuation by the British). They get it right with Trafalgar but that was over two hundred years ago.
Two other parties fielding candidates focus specifically on the European issue. They are either for democracy and against the EU or for democracy and for the EU. Confused? How do you think I feel? I wonder how many members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) would prefer it if their leader stuck to union politics rather than dipping his toe into the European variety as well.
The Green Party is also likely to gain from current voter unhappiness. They have sent out a jolly and positive leaflet, printed on recycled paper (of course), featuring children from a range of ethnic backgrounds. It is ironic that the party that was most vocal about recycling has succeeded in getting what many regard as junk mail through the door when the Labour Party has not made that effort so far in my area. I suspect that the Conservatives have had to bin and reprint some of their literature as the item I received mentions “Taking a lead in reforming MEPs’ pay and expenses” (I doubt that they were too worried about that issue before the Telegraph began telling tales on those who claimed, or tried to claim, duck islands and moat clearance as legitimate expenses). I wonder how many will misread that as MPs’ expenses.
I’ve made my choice and sent off my ballot paper. I hope it was the right one. I did have doubts about voting at all because I was so angry that people who claimed to represent me thought that it was acceptable to ask tax payers to pay for things that tax payers could not themselves afford. People who risked serious physical or psychological injury and even death to take part in events such as D-Day now cannot afford to pay for heating and food. Yet there are MPs who expect to be refunded for the confectionary they consume in the course of their strenuous duties. In the end I remembered what a friend pointed out to me many years ago, that women died so that I could vote, and I put my cross in what I believe is the right place. Better a wrong choice than no choice at all.
This year several independent candidates are standing and, thanks to the scandal of MPs’ expenses, they are likely to get more votes that they bargained for when they opted to become involved in the process. The UK’s electorate are in the mood to punish. The three main parties are likely to feel the full force of the average voter’s anger but smaller parties, some of whom have yet to win seats in the UK’s Parliament, are bound to gain from this situation.
The British National Party has made the most of it and their representatives have been heard and seen on the mainstream broadcast media. They usually shun the BNP but the fact that many people are openly stating that they will vote for a party that claims “It’s not racist to oppose mass immigration and political correctness - it‘s common sense!” means that they have to be seen to be fair and give them some air time. There isn’t a single foreign sounding name on their list of candidates, in contrast to the other parties, and their leaflet only features white faces.
It proclaims a “New Battle of Britain” and to this end includes an image of a Spitfire, the aircraft most associated with the desperate hours of World War 2 when Britain faced invasion from the forces of Nazi Germany. Unfortunately for whoever put the leaflet together the actual Spitfire shown has been identified as that flown by Jan Zumbach, a pilot of the Polish Fighter Squadron. Elsewhere the leaflet includes references to other conflicts in which the UK could not have managed without foreign help, namely D-Day (USA) and the Falklands (the Gurkhas and a number of others from Commonwealth countries who chose to join the UK’s armed forces). They also mention the Somme (to this day no one can be sure who really won) and Dunkirk (a major evacuation by the British). They get it right with Trafalgar but that was over two hundred years ago.
Two other parties fielding candidates focus specifically on the European issue. They are either for democracy and against the EU or for democracy and for the EU. Confused? How do you think I feel? I wonder how many members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) would prefer it if their leader stuck to union politics rather than dipping his toe into the European variety as well.
The Green Party is also likely to gain from current voter unhappiness. They have sent out a jolly and positive leaflet, printed on recycled paper (of course), featuring children from a range of ethnic backgrounds. It is ironic that the party that was most vocal about recycling has succeeded in getting what many regard as junk mail through the door when the Labour Party has not made that effort so far in my area. I suspect that the Conservatives have had to bin and reprint some of their literature as the item I received mentions “Taking a lead in reforming MEPs’ pay and expenses” (I doubt that they were too worried about that issue before the Telegraph began telling tales on those who claimed, or tried to claim, duck islands and moat clearance as legitimate expenses). I wonder how many will misread that as MPs’ expenses.
I’ve made my choice and sent off my ballot paper. I hope it was the right one. I did have doubts about voting at all because I was so angry that people who claimed to represent me thought that it was acceptable to ask tax payers to pay for things that tax payers could not themselves afford. People who risked serious physical or psychological injury and even death to take part in events such as D-Day now cannot afford to pay for heating and food. Yet there are MPs who expect to be refunded for the confectionary they consume in the course of their strenuous duties. In the end I remembered what a friend pointed out to me many years ago, that women died so that I could vote, and I put my cross in what I believe is the right place. Better a wrong choice than no choice at all.
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