The Euro Election Day Megathread

[Shar]

I wasn't sure who to vote for in the first place but now that I'm not home I cant anyway. Happy voting to everyone else.

[myles]

cant be ******

[Chippiewill]

[The Don]

Correct.

The European 'parliament' is a powerless body that cannot create laws like a normal parliament but which can only say yes/no to the unelected European Commission which is the body which creates the laws. The United Kingdom only has something like 9% of MEPs in the voting chamber too which makes it even more worthless, all of which is another reason why we ought to leave the EU for the sake of democracy.

The importance of this if Ukip win is that it'll be a blow to the 100-year cosy duopoly between the Conservatives and Labour, that it'll show the contempt we have for the EU & the main two parties, it'll put pressure on Labour to hold a referendum and it'll build Ukip up as a force for 2015.

I don't want a federal Europe, I don't want our parliament to be overruled, I don't want MEPs and most of all: I want a say.

The Commission is elected...

[-:Undertaker:-]

The Commission is elected...

Not by the public.

Reckon the British people will be able to name any of these crackpots and/or non-entities below?

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet your new European Commission President.

Or the non-entity Herman Van Rompuy?

[Chippiewill]

Not by the public.

Neither is our cabinet.

[The Don]

Not by the public.

Reckon the British people will be able to name any of these crackpots and/or non-entities below?

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet your new European Commission President.

Doesn't make them unelected.

How many MP's do you think the British public can name? How many house of lords members do you think the public can name? How many senators do you think the US public can name?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Neither is our cabinet.

But that's the difference, and that's why the EU parliament isn't a parliament at all.

In a normal parliament, a real parliament, you go into the elections with each party promising to form a government from the floor of that chamber of elected MPs. In the EU parliament, the MEPs are elected who then choose to appoint a Commission of people who are not elected from the chamber floor. That Commission then proposes legislation and passes it on to the parliament, where as in a real democratic process the parliament is the body which proposes legislation on the whim of the elected government who sit in the parliament.

That's why it's known by observers as the 'democratic deficit' - but the EU can never be a true democracy anyway simply by it's nature.

Doesn't make them unelected.

How many MP's do you think the British public can name? How many houses of lords member do you think the public can name?

I'd say a damn lot more than could name Herman Van Rompuy or any of the four in the photo above.

How many senators do you think the US public can name?

Who cares? The US Senate isn't making laws for Britain.

[FlyingJesus]

We have a representative democracy as we have done for hundreds of years, nothing is totally decided "by the people" because we elect others to make decisions for us. To then claim that the effect of their decisions is undemocratic is ludicrous

[-:Undertaker:-]

We have a representative democracy as we have done for hundreds of years, nothing is totally decided "by the people" because we elect others to make decisions for us. To then claim that the effect of their decisions is undemocratic is ludicrous

It is, but the EU system in the UK would be akin to just electing Councillors who would then vote for the Government on our behalf.

I don't regard that as an elected government or a true democracy as the executive of decision making isn't elected by the people.