127 Responses to “South East European”

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1. Frederic Stansfield

   Luke, from the County Council results in my part of the world, Canterbury, the increase in the Green vote is too big to have come entirely from disaffected Labour supporters, although it may look that way in terms of the swings in the Euroelection. You yourself suggest student Green support, which is in effect that party recuriting the new voters.
   It would be interesting to have an analysis as to where in the South-East the swing to the Greens was strongest and where it was weakest, but I am not sure where I can find the necesary data on the internet.

   June 10th, 2009 at 10:08 am
2. Frederic Stansfield

   Anthony, do your biographical details really mean that Steve Harris was an ex-United States serviceman? It could be far from irrelevant if Nigel Farage wins a UK seat in Buckingham and therefore has to be replaced for Strasbourg.

   When a vacancy occurs for an MEP it is deplorable that there is not a by-election, if only to select an MEP from the Party concerned (as happens at present in the House of Lords for hereditary peers). In practice, for the smaller parties European elections are foughtly largely in terms of the profile of the candidate heading the list. So anybody can be put on the list lower down, with little consequence for voting behaviour. And times change in the five years lifetime of a European parliament. People in 2010 might not want the same person as in 2009.

   I introduced this point in relation to UKIP, but it would also apply to the Greens if Caroline Lucas won Brighton Pavillion.

   This point relates to vacancies for MEPs, but there is an associated issue that Closed Lists are deplorable because they do not allow voters to chose between individuals to represent them. E.g. now that Dan Hannan has made some controversial statements it is quite conceivable that there are voters who would like to vote for Conservatives like Richard Ashworth, but not Dan Hannan. And conversely there might well be non-Conservatives who would like to vote for Dan Hannan, but would not by so doing like to elect as more mainstream Tory further down the list.

   September 3rd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
3. Liberal Neil

   “When a vacancy occurs for an MEP it is deplorable that there is not a by-election”

   It may be deplorable, but the cost of a by-election across a region, particularly the South East, must be huge.

   September 6th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
4. Andy Stidwill

   It depends how much one thinks having a democratic vote is worth I suppose. On a slightly different topic, it’s interesting that at one time candidates used to have to pay for everything associated with elections themselves, such as the cost of renting ballot boxes, voting booths, vote counting, etc, which wasn’t a great encouragement to ordinary people to stand as candidates.

   September 6th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
5. Frederic Stansfield

   If there were by-elections for the Ruropean Parliament, the EU’s budget, and the auditing thereof, would come into the public spotlight more often. I suspect the cost of a European by-election is far less than the savings that would accrue from greater electoral scrutiny of EU matters.

   And it need hardly be said that the South-East Region EU seat is far too large, given that it is larger than, say Yorkshire and the North-East combined.

   September 6th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
6. Andy Stidwill

   Yes, surely the regions should be equalised as much as possible just as parliamentary constituencies are. It’s not as if the regions are particularly sensible at the moment, with for example Banbury being part of the SE region whilst Rickmansworth is part of the Eastern region.

   September 6th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
7. Ray Finch

   @Frederic Stansfield.
   Steve Harris was born in the UK (Aldershot IIRC) and is a British citizen. He was partly educated in the USA and served three tours with the US Navy in Vietnam. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He has lived in the UK for many years.

   Ray Finch.
   UKIP SE EU candidate number 10.

   October 8th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

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