Thursday 4 June 2009

Doing my part for democracy

Today is voting day!

Today we get to elect our local councils and also our MEPs - the people who represent us in the European Parliament!

There was a massive choice in candidates, especially for the European Parliament.


Labour - the party that is currently in power in the UK, formerly lead by Tony Blair. Claims to represent the normal working man, but most of them are from very wealthy backgrounds and the recent expenses scandal has revealed that many of them are about as corrupt as it gets.

Conservative - traditionally the partiy of the rich and privilaged, just as guilty in the expenses scandal but somehow coming out of it better - perhaps people just expect it of these people? :-)

Lib-Dems - the party that sits in the middle and doesn't usually have much power unless it can side with one of the big 2 to influence things. Good policies that will never see the light of day!

British National Party - the "We aren't Nazis at all, are we Mein Fuhrer?" party.

Green Party - This party wants to push the green agenda, forcing environmental issues to be put before things like profit.

The Roman Party - I have no idea what these stand for, but they caught my eye. If they stood for things like throwing criminals to the lions I might have voted for them :-)


The expenses scandal? Big news in the UK, maybe not overseas? This is all about MPs claiming all sorts of things as "expenses" and getting the tax payer to pay for it. Things like:

Cleaning of moats.
Porn for the husband to watch while the MP wife is in London working.
Paying sons thousands to do "research" while they are actually away at University.
Renovation of "second homes" which are then sold for a massive profit.
Home cinema systems.
A bath plug.

The list is huge and goes on and on. James will probably have a favourite.

Anyway, I cast my votes. Any guesses who for?

12 comments:

James said...

I am going to be voting for UKIP to take us OUT of Europe.

Rock Chef said...

The EU is certainly a mixed blessing - and the mix seems to get worse each time it gets bigger!

terri said...

A bath plug? LOL! So politicians are the same no matter where they live.

Rock Chef said...

Terri - Yep! I think there must be a special training program that they go through - especially learning how to say "I haven't broken any rules" with a straight face!

Ali said...

Politics make my brain go mushy - so I zeroed in on bath plug. Now I am even more confused, but laughing my ass off. Aren't bath plugs like a dollar?!

LOL.

Sorry, I'm overtired.

Hahahaha, bath plug...

Michele said...

I think politics are politics no matter where you live. Power always leads to abuse. I'd vote for the guy who bought the bath plug, as he is the cleanest of the batch! (haha... get it? LOL)

Rock Chef said...

Ali - I thought that was a good one too.

Michele - Funnily enough, the bath plug-guy is the MP for Canterbury, but I don't get to vote for him as I live just outside his area. And he does try to come across as very clean...

The Moody Minstrel said...

Good grief...I'm the Yank who refused to join either the Democrat or Republican parties, citing the annoying lack of choice (and yes, I have been harassed for it at polling stations), and here I am looking at that list and saying, "Gee...how complicated elections are when you have more than two viable parties!"

I guess I just can't win with politics...so I'll just stick to griping about it.

kenady said...

nobody guessed who you voted for...

i'm going with the green party:)

i abhor politics!

Um Naief said...

yeah, it's been in the news here as well and having some british friends, they talk about it. crazy stuff.. but good that they were caught.

i think this green movement sounds good...

Claire said...

We get round stickers to wear on our lapels when we vote here that say "I voted." I would think you went with the green party too.

Rock Chef said...

Moody Minstrel - that is my wife's take on it!

Kenady - Yes, you got it right!

Um Naief - It is good that they were caught. I am not sure that UK politics will recover very quickly. Green is good...

Claire - I want a sticker! Correct too! I voted Green!