European Parliament election
May. 18th, 2019 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
As it is now but a few days before the European Parliament election the time is now ripe for reviewing materials relating to the available alternatives. Normally I would review policy platforms and lend additional credence to those planks that they seem most eager to promote, rather than those tucked away for only the keenest to discover. However, this is a peculiar election and I don't know if or how to adjust for that fact. After all, the elected candidate may expect to serve but a brief, weakened term and many will regard the outcome of the election as being about something other than by whom we wish to be represented for the Parliament's actual business. Anyhow, on my ballot paper I expect:
I wonder why a second referendum is branded a
- Change UK
- I haven't received anything from them and their candidates appear to be defecting to the Liberal Democrats anyway. Change UK seem to want a second referendum that includes Remain as an option. They brand themselves as centrists.
- Conservative and Unionist Party
- The leaflet is at least as much against a second independence referendum for Scotland as it is about honoring the Leave result of the EU referendum. While I concede that I don't know why it is even newsworthy any more that Nicola Sturgeon has noticed another reason why or circumstance in which another independence referendum is warranted and decided to tell somebody about it, I doubt that the EU Parliament has much say over Scottish independence. It is an unusually good leaflet in saying anything at all about the actual candidates.
- Labour Party
- Their leaflet is largely about preventing the UK from leaving the EU without a deal and redistribution to increase financial equality. They prefer a second referendum to the available deal. They plan to do things like fund the NHS and extend free bus travel but how that relates to the European Parliament isn't made clear.
- Liberal Democrats
- I don't seem to have received anything from them but they appear to be seeking a second referendum for which they support Remain. They believe that EU membership is good for prosperity, public services and action on climate change. They are against a second referendum on Scottish independence.
- Scottish Green Party
- They want to remain in the EU and encourage immigration; they favor a second referendum. As one might expect they are also keen on tackling climate change. I take their current story on that as probably being as described the Grauniad's opinion pages a couple of weeks ago in which some politicians admirably concur about the need for significant changes in the short term, though I didn't see anything about trickier issues like if nuclear power is an acceptable stopgap. In that opinion piece they see environmental action also as an opportunity to reduce inequality. I tried to find out more clearly what the Scottish Green Party might mean by
Our Green New Deal
but as of a few weeks ago their position appears to be that they favor settingin motion the process of creating
one; Sir Humphrey would be proud. - Scottish National Party
- Their position is Remain which they prefer to leaving without a deal and they want a second referendum to include the option of Remain. They make the point that, overall, Scotland did vote Remain. Of course, they would choose EU membership above UK membership.
- The Brexit Party
- My eldest received material from them but I didn't. It seems to center on the proposition that the Her Majesty's Government have shamefully failed to deliver on democratically expressed will and leaving the EU honors that previous referendum vote thus restoring trust. Wider reading suggests that they believe that the UK should leave with no deal and sort out trade deals subsequently; at a quick glance I don't see that position confirmed but it does fit my impression of them.
- UK Independence Party
- My eldest also received material from them. It is very simply pro-Leave. It features a photograph of a cheerful-looking fellow in what might be somewhere in Scotland. Perhaps it shows the current UKIP leader or our Scottish first-listed candidate.
- Gordon Edgar
- I've heard nothing about him at all so had to go looking. It appears that he expects Leave but wants a deal with the EU to be in place. He positions himself as a
none of the above
kind of candidate for those fed up of party politics. - Ken Parke
- I did once hear their name mentioned but know nothing at all about them.
I wonder why a second referendum is branded a
people's vote; perhaps there is some sense in which the previous wasn't such. In wondering who doesn't count as
peopleI may be oversensitive after talk of
real Americans(in apparent contrast to those effete city folks).