MEPS arrive for work at 6PM and then go home.

[Chippiewill]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTpkdtzncT0

Turn up at 6PM, collect 300 Euros, go home. It's an easy life.

[GommeInc]

This has been happening for years. It's a ridiculous system, much like the organisation behind it. Many MEPs are really not needed and do not need to sit through hours of boring speeches about horrendously trivial matters but need to sign in. They have no interests in the failing project, even though they got voted in. You could even argue that some or most of these MEPs are failed politicians just trying to scrape some money together.

[FlyingJesus]

Where do I sign up

[AgnesIO]

Nigel Farage MEP...

Damn him cheating the system!!!!1!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[Chippiewill]

Well Nigel is even worse, he doesn't turn up at all. Some representative he is.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Well Nigel is even worse, he doesn't turn up at all. Some representative he is.

No point turning up to votes on the standardisation of tractor seats (no, i'm not making that up) when the parliament votes it through on ratio like 500 to 14. :P

[Chippiewill]

That's not the point, Rand Paul's filibuster a few months back achieved nothing in the filibustering sense, but it was the act of protesting that was meaningful. You shouldn't skip out on turning up because you're not going to make a practical change, you should turn up so that you represent your constituents and their complaints.

[FlyingJesus]

Vote us so we can not do the job you voted us to do

[-:Undertaker:-]

That's not the point, Rand Paul's filibuster a few months back achieved nothing in the filibustering sense, but it was the act of protesting that was meaningful. You shouldn't skip out on turning up because you're not going to make a practical change, you should turn up so that you represent your constituents and their complaints.

That used to be the approach, back when they couldn't fill town hall meetings up - loud speeches in the EU parliament posted on YouTube were the only way to reach people. Now though Farage can fill up a meeting hall with a few hundred people and is invited on to media programmes more often - something that gives the messages more exposure than sitting in Brussels voting in ridiculous votes that are slam dunks to begin with.

It's like Bloom who visits universities around the country every week - far better way at getting the message out.