Voting in the European Elections

I've thought long and hard about who I am going to vote for in the European election tomorrow and here are my thoughts on the choices available to me as a voter in the South West England European Parliament constituency. Just in case you've forgotten (I had), this constituency consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. And, believe it or not, it also includes Gibraltar. You know, that rock at the southernmost tip of Spain.

Why am I voting?

Voting in the European election is important for four reasons. Firstly, it is contested on a proportional basis, meaning that those who vote for alternative parties are not just "wasting their vote" as is the case in the unrepresentative and apathy inducing Westminster system. Secondly, the turnout for Euro elections is embarrassingly low (33% in 2009) and I don't want to be counted amongst those who don't vote. Thirdly, whilst recognising all of the faults and the need for wholesale reform, I am still a strong believer in our links with Europe and want to maintain them. And, fourthly, I hold the old fashioned view that voting is a civic duty.

 

Who am I not going to vote for?

1 The Lib-Lab-Con establishment
The archaic electoral system used in our general elections has allowed the three Westminster establishment parties (the Lib-Lab-Cons) to run, what is in effect, a closed-shop. Time after time they have lied to and openly defied the wishes of the electorate, safe in the knowledge that alternative parties have virtually no chance of overturning their oligopoly  (ooh, I do like that word) on political power. The European election is an excellent opportunity for people to protest against the out-of-touch establishment, because under the Proportional Representation voting system every vote counts. In my opinion, voting for any of the 'big three' in these (and, to be frank, in any) elections is voting for the continuation of the establishment orthodoxy - and that's what got us where we are today.
 

2 UKIP

It looks as if UKIP stands a good chance of winning the most seats in the European Parliament, riding on a tide of political illiterates (I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but they are) who consider them some kind of "alternative" to the establishment orthodoxy. What these people fail to realise is that UKIP is even more fanatical about the right-wing Thatcherite economic orthodoxy of neoliberalism than the Lib-Lab-Con establishment, and that they are financed by a pack of former Tory party donors. One of the saddest indicators of the lack of political nonce of most UKIP supporters is that, as opinion polls consistently show, the vast majority of them actually favour the explicitly socialist policies of the NHS and of renationalising the rail network and energy companies. Despite this they are going to march off to the ballots in order to vote for a blatantly Thatcherite party with a burning ideological hatred of the public sector. Unbelievable!

 

 And let's not forget that the main reason for the rise of UKIP is that nobody in the Lib-Lab-Con Trio can offer a credible alternative that articulates public rage without playing on popular hatred. For that, you need vision, hope and real respect for the electorate. For that, you need politicians of stature. And those are things the Big 3 have yet to provide. In fact, I have grave doubts that they are capable of providing them.

 

3 An Independence from Europe Party
A party recently formed by a UKIP reject and with a single objective - let's get out of Europe. A sort of UKIP-lite party and not one that will get a vote from me.

 

4 The fascist fringe

It is incontestable that UKIP occupies the extreme-right authoritarian territory you would expect from a "Thatcherism on steroids" party. However they do tend to regularly expel people from the party when they express totally outrageous and openly fascist sentiments (mandatory abortions for disabled foetuses, suggesting black actors go to live in black countries, blaming gay marriage for the Somerset floods, referring to female party members as sluts...). That they attract so many of these lunatics in the first place should be deeply concerning.
People who are genuine fascists (rather than just politically illiterate/hopelessly confused little-Englanders) have a couple of parties to choose from:

 

There's the laughing stock that is the British National Party, which is led by Nick Griffin (a man who is now as financially bankrupt as he is morally bankrupt) and there are the English Democrats, who are pretty much the political wing of the English Defence League. Neither are for me and, I presume, few people in this constituency.
 

All that leads to the single Genuine Alternative for me - The Green Party

One of the most amusing sounds in modern British politics is the sound of political drones trying to dismiss the Greens as a "single issue party". The Green party have a detailed manifesto covering a huge range of issues, unlike UKIP, for example, whose party manifesto had to be dropped after Nigel Farage dismissed it as 'drivel', meaning that they go into the 2014 European elections with the most absurdly childish party 'manifesto' I've ever read (a 12 page document, five pages of which are taken up by pictures, and the rest containing nothing more than a few unsubstantiated bullet points and pro-UKIP quotations - download a copy and see if you agree with me).

Anyone who actually bothers to check out the Green Party manifesto, and then takes a look at the ludicrous UKIP 'manifesto' will be left in absolutely no doubt about which is a serious political party with actual policies, and which is a bunch of absolute charlatans pretending to be a political party. Everyone will be more-or-less familiar with the Green party position the environment, so here is a comparison of some of their more important policies on non-environmental issues with the other main parties.

 

 

Ticks in all of the Green boxes for the areas I consider important. Let's face it, in social and economic terms, the Green Party occupies the traditional territory of Old Labour. That's where my heart lies and voting Green tomorrow is my best option.

If just one in every hundred people who didn't bother to vote in the last European elections decided to vote Green, they would easily force the Liberal Democrats into the embarrassment of a fifth place finish. And that's something worth aiming for!