European elections

[wshaffer]

I am slightly amused by all the folks that I follow on Twitter telling each other not to vote for the BNP (British National Party) in today's European Parliamentary elections. I completely agree with the sentiment - it's just that the idea that any of that gang, who tend to be cosmopolitan, tolerant, and rather left-leaning on the whole, would go out and vote for a bunch of fascists seems pretty remote.

Last night, I went to listen to the May 30 episode of the Weekly Political Review podcast, which promised to explain the European parliamentary elections. However, what had turned up in my iTunes feed was actually a Radio 4 documentary about medieval Bagdad. Which is as good an illustration as any of why the BNP is full of crap, but I'm no wiser about the European parliament. I've downloaded the relevant episode direct from the podcast website, and with any luck, I'll be slightly more enlightened by the time the voting results actually come out.

Still, this is the first time I can remember being interested in a European parliamentary election. Actually, this is the first time I can remember knowing that there was a European parliamentary election.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I thought the main gist of such posts was that people should VOTE DAMMIT so the BNP don't get in by default through voter apathy. (Just saw an interesting post on a Scottish nationalist party that seems to've done a good job at being the independent party in the usual scuffle between Conservative and Labour in these elections.)

OH INTERNETS indeed. Sometimes iTunes can be a bit schizoid like that. Still, medieval Baghdad is no doubt fascinating.

I'd love to hear a non-European take on Euro-politics; I know the general view of them from those under the EU aegis was somewhat jaded.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I thought the main gist of such posts was that people should VOTE DAMMIT so the BNP don't get in by default through voter apathy.

That is undoubtedly the gist of the message - in the 140 character format of Twitter, such nuances sometimes get lost.

European politics is rather bewildering to an American - partly because we don't have the experience of being part of any similar supra-national entity. I'm still not entirely clear on what the European parliament does, although I get the impression that it's responsible for a lot of regulatory legislation - the technocratic boring stuff that no one pays attention to until it bites them. Then the sheer array of parties is fascinating, as is the amount of political energy that seems to be spent on parties who want to take their countries out of the EU.

In short: wibble. I might be able to expand on that as I learn more.