Quote:Eurosceptic and far-right parties have seized ground in elections to the European parliament, in what France's PM called a "political earthquake".

The French National Front and UK Independence Party both performed strongly, while the three big centrist blocs in parliament all lost seats.

France National Front storm to victory - 25%, 25 seats; Centre-right UMP 21%; President Hollande's Socialists a poor third with 14% - lowest ever EP score

Britain Eurosceptic UKIP in first place, with 27%, Conservatives on 24% and Labour about 25%, Greens beating Lib Dems

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, commenting on his party's success in Britain, said: "The inevitability of European integration ends tonight."



It will be the first time a national election has not been won by the Conservatives or Labour in 100 years - and the first time a party with no MPs at Westminster has achieved such a result.

Counting in Northern Ireland begins later on Monday.

UKIP topped the poll in six of the 10 regions to declare, with its strongest performance coming in the East Midlands, where its vote was up 16.5% to 33%

UKIP came third in London with 16.9% of the vote

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-27567744

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27559714

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-27572305

For comparison's sake ... in the EU elections 5 years ago, the Conservatives got 27.7% of the total vote, ahead of UKIP on 16.5%, Labour on 15.7%, the Lib Dems on 13.7%, the Green Party on 8.6% and the BNP on 6.2%.

So UKIP nearly doubled up ... and it came out of the hides of the Greens, Lib Dems, Conservatives, and BNP.

http://www.bbc.com/news/events/vote2014/eu-uk-results

A great visualization of just how dramatic the UKIP gains are: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-27572694

And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded

(05-26-2014 06:49 AM)AngryAphid Wrote:  And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded

I forget which that is, Daniel or Revelations?

And how does it fit with the elections?

The EU Parliament has very, VERY limited powers. And the bad guys still hold a majority of the seats, anyway.

But simply as an expression of popular opinion -- and taken as a whole -- these results from across Europe are very encouraging.

One key lesson: if the "respectable", "mainstream" political parties insist on ignoring issues of immigration, national sovereignty, and economic growth, then the task of addressing those issues will be taken up by the "ugly", "extremist" parties.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27579235

An interesting article on the French, German and British reactions to the elections. The Brits have long been Eurosceptic but the French have been big players in the EU experiment, the result there is the most important. The tide is beginning to turn and hopefully we're not too far off the EU going back to an economic trading group and not a centralized German run federation dictating policy to other countries where it is inadequate or detrimental to their needs.

The Euro-skeptic parties got 15% of the seats in a low turnout, protest election. While the parties are profoundly racist and homophobic (especially Jobbik/Golden Dawn/UKIP), many of the voters voting for them aren't racist and simply used a throwaway vote to protest Eastern European immigration.

Besides, the far right parties don't even agree with each other. They'll get nothing accomplished in the Europarliament other than to offend most Europeans.

'Meh'. 15% of Europeans hate Gay people and don't want non-white immigration? Not surprised.

This has nothing to do with gay. It has to do with sovereignty.

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(05-26-2014 08:49 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  The EU Parliament has very, VERY limited powers. And the bad guys still hold a majority of the seats, anyway.

Don't tell the British that. The EU parliament has been a massive thorn in the side of average UK'ers, and that's one reason the UKIP nearly doubled up from the last elections.

As noted by ODUgs... the French election was actually much more telling right now about how the EU is going. The UK vote was more of a protest vote than the rest of the elections, but the French one was much more along the lines of how dissatisfied the average European is with the EU.

(05-26-2014 05:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  'Meh'. 15% of Europeans hate Gay people and don't want non-white immigration? Not surprised.

Liberal political debate arguments in condensed form:






Racist. Racist. *Cacophony of racist*

Homophobe. Homophobe. *Cacophony of homophobe*



The rest is redistribution of wealth, equality of outcome, and recycled Paul Krugman.

(05-26-2014 09:25 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 08:49 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  The EU Parliament has very, VERY limited powers. And the bad guys still hold a majority of the seats, anyway.

Don't tell the British that. The EU parliament has been a massive thorn in the side of average UK'ers, and that's one reason the UKIP nearly doubled up from the last election

I'm distinguishing the EU, overall, from the EU Parliament, specifically, which represents just one tentacle of the squid-like beast, and not even the most powerful tentacle. But it's the one that ordinary people have at least some small influence over, so it's the one that the media focuses on.

(05-26-2014 09:42 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 09:25 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 08:49 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  The EU Parliament has very, VERY limited powers. And the bad guys still hold a majority of the seats, anyway.

Don't tell the British that. The EU parliament has been a massive thorn in the side of average UK'ers, and that's one reason the UKIP nearly doubled up from the last election

I'm distinguishing the EU, overall, from the EU Parliament, specifically, which represents just one tentacle of the squid-like beast, and not even the most powerful tentacle. But it's the one that ordinary people have at least some small influence over, so it's the one that the media focuses on.

Georgian, ask any Brit "on the street" that has any knowledge of European Parliament and they'd point out everything from their carbon tax to their "education" recommendations that were pushed out by the EU Parliament..


Btw.. don't know if anyone saw on the news (I watch BBC World News when I get home in the a.m.), that the Education Secretary wants to ban all American literature from British education.

Even the Brits are ripping the Sect ... they even suggested the Brits get rid of Shakespeare, since most of his stories are about "upper class families".

(05-26-2014 09:51 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 09:42 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 09:25 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 08:49 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  The EU Parliament has very, VERY limited powers. And the bad guys still hold a majority of the seats, anyway.

Don't tell the British that. The EU parliament has been a massive thorn in the side of average UK'ers, and that's one reason the UKIP nearly doubled up from the last election

I'm distinguishing the EU, overall, from the EU Parliament, specifically, which represents just one tentacle of the squid-like beast, and not even the most powerful tentacle. But it's the one that ordinary people have at least some small influence over, so it's the one that the media focuses on.

Georgian, ask any Brit "on the street" that has any knowledge of European Parliament and they'd point out everything from their carbon tax to their "education" recommendations that were pushed out by the EU Parliament..


Btw.. don't know if anyone saw on the news (I watch BBC World News when I get home in the a.m.), that the Education Secretary wants to ban all American literature from British education.

Even the Brits are ripping the Sect ... they even suggested the Brits get rid of Shakespeare, since most of his stories are about "upper class families".

Michael Gove? The guy is super old school and is very unpopular because of it, I think he's an idiot. He seems to want to make every school like Welton Academy except without Mr. Keating. On the other hand he is very supportive of 'free schools' (essentially schools run by a board of parents or people with local interests such as religious groups as opposed to the council) which is relatively popular. I'm not au fait with the details but I agree with the principle.

Apparently he denies that he's trying to ban US texts.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/edu...hools.html

EDIT: So from about two minutes of research it seems that he has made most of the curricula British only and has left maybe 20-25% of the available course options for schools with international authors.

(05-26-2014 09:34 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 05:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  'Meh'. 15% of Europeans hate Gay people and don't want non-white immigration? Not surprised.

Liberal political debate arguments in condensed form:






Racist. Racist. *Cacophony of racist*

Homophobe. Homophobe. *Cacophony of homophobe*



The rest is redistribution of wealth, equality of outcome, and recycled Paul Krugman.

UKIP = Golden Dawn with a British Accent. Like that description better?

(05-26-2014 09:34 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 05:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  'Meh'. 15% of Europeans hate Gay people and don't want non-white immigration? Not surprised.

Liberal political debate arguments in condensed form:






Racist. Racist. *Cacophony of racist*

Homophobe. Homophobe. *Cacophony of homophobe*



The rest is redistribution of wealth, equality of outcome, and recycled Paul Krugman.

(05-26-2014 10:32 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 09:34 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 05:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  'Meh'. 15% of Europeans hate Gay people and don't want non-white immigration? Not surprised.

Liberal political debate arguments in condensed form:






Racist. Racist. *Cacophony of racist*

Homophobe. Homophobe. *Cacophony of homophobe*



The rest is redistribution of wealth, equality of outcome, and recycled Paul Krugman.

UKIP = Golden Dawn with a British Accent. Like that description better?

UKIP certainly have their fair share of crackpots and people who use racist/homophobic language more than Nigel Farage may like, but they are certainly not a fascist party. Most of their issues come from having a lot of old conservatives as their candidates. In 10 or so years they'll have much better candidates with less loopy views. The party policy is not racist or homophobic.

The importance of this election and the rise of UKIP is not that they will run Britain any time soon, it's that the British public are tired of the EU and the legislation forced upon them by foreign lawmakers who don't necessarily have the views and needs of the British people as the basis for their decisions. From the 90s with New Labour and the Liberal Democrats joining the Conservative led coalition in 2010, there is very little choice in British politics, you're choosing between minute details when it comes to casting your vote. The British people want choice and they want parties to stand for something. The rise of UKIP will hopefully force the main political parties to make some serious policy decisions. The EU is a big deal but British people haven't had any say in our part in it for decades, that's not fair.

(05-26-2014 10:32 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  UKIP = Golden Dawn with a British Accent. Like that description better?

Keep that head planted firmly in the sand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKIP#Policies


UKIP could be fairly described as being broadly similar to Jim DeMint but more tolerant on social issues than DeMint was. To paint a more broad brush stroke ... they are a blend of true libertarianism and traditional conservatism. They skew more conservative on immigration and social issues but are decidedly left of the GOP leadership on those issues. Their bullish position on defense spending is more understandable given the size of their military presently. It is easier to stomach an increase in defense spending when you're not spending more than the rest of the world combined (like the US is). Also, the specific spending outlined is actual defense and not offense.

(05-26-2014 11:03 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(05-26-2014 10:32 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  UKIP = Golden Dawn with a British Accent. Like that description better?

Keep that head planted firmly in the sand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKIP#Policies


UKIP could be fairly described as being broadly similar to Jim DeMint but more tolerant on social issues than DeMint was. To paint a more broad brush stroke ... they are a blend of true libertarianism and traditional conservatism. They skew more conservative on immigration and social issues but are decidedly left of the GOP leadership on those issues. Their bullish position on defense spending is more understandable given the size of their military presently. It is easier to stomach an increase in defense spending when you're not spending more than the rest of the world combined (like the US is). Also, the specific spending outlined is actual defense and not offense.

The UKIP is filled with gaffe prone persons making sexist, racist, homophobic, and otherwise offensive comments. Regardless of the UKIP's manifesto, the actions and statements of its candidates and office holders speak for themselves.

And the Democrats are filled with people who make racist, sexist, and otherwise homophobic comments...

And there are dumb republicans who make racist, sexist, and otherwise homophobic comments..

So what??