Euro Elections

[Voice of reason 0]

44 minutes ago, Longcol said:

There is very little chance of the Brexit Party causing havoc.

 

https://theconversation.com/brexit-party-nigel-farages-threat-to-disrupt-eu-business-is-a-waste-of-his-energy-115526

Is the fact that our MEPs being unable to alter anything because the Council are making the big decisions , in some way supposed to make us feel more comfortable with the EU?

I'm not in favour of them reaking havoc, but the fact that they are there makes no difference is surely an indicator of the problem???

[Longcol 598]

Just now, Voice of reason said:

Is the fact that our MEPs being unable to alter anything because the Council are making the big decisions , in some way supposed to make us feel more comfortable with the EU?

I'm not in favour of them reaking havoc, but the fact that they are there makes no difference is surely an indicator of the problem???

No single country can get their own way. They can join with like minded colleagues in other countries to gain influence.

 

Bit like Yorkshire & Humberside MP's in Parliament -  54 MP's out of 650.

[XXTickerXX 10]

1 hour ago, Longcol said:

There is very little chance of the Brexit Party causing havoc.

 

https://theconversation.com/brexit-party-nigel-farages-threat-to-disrupt-eu-business-is-a-waste-of-his-energy-115526

Maybe not in Europe. Here in the UK though..... I think we reached the tipping point.

 

 

 

[Top Cats Hat 10]

3 minutes ago, XXTickerXX said:

Maybe not in Europe. Here in the UK though..... I think we reached the tipping point.

People rarely vote on single issues in a General Election.

[XXTickerXX 10]

2 minutes ago, Top Cats Hat said:

People rarely vote on single issues in a General Election.

Well Peterborough will be that litmus test next week. A vote for the Brexit Party is no longer a wasted vote.

 

 

The Brexit Party are the perfect example of the disenfranchised voters revenge. It turns out that the electorate do not like being ignored. Who would have thought.....

 

 

Labour and the Conservatives are terrified at the moment. 

 

 

 

[Car Boot 10]

The late Tony Benn once proposed asking five questions of the powerful men in the EU:

 

What power do you have?

Where did you get your power?

In whose interests do you exercise your power?

To whom are you accountable?

How can we get rid of you?

 

“Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system", Tony Benn.

 

The UK electorate has no power to vote out either the European Commission or the European Council. 

 

The European Council determines the political priorities of the European Union. The EU Commission has the sole power to write legislation. Both are undemocratic and their power is deliberately kept well away from the European voters.

 

[andyofborg 11]

57 minutes ago, Car Boot said:

The late Tony Benn once proposed asking five questions of the powerful men in the EU:

 

What power do you have?

Where did you get your power?

In whose interests do you exercise your power?

To whom are you accountable?

How can we get rid of you?

 

“Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system", Tony Benn.

 

The UK electorate has no power to vote out either the European Commission or the European Council. 

 

The European Council determines the political priorities of the European Union. The EU Commission has the sole power to write legislation. Both are undemocratic and their power is deliberately kept well away from the European voters.

 

The european council is made up of the leaders and ministers of the individual governments, so we do have the power to replace them.

 

 

[Mister Gee 813]

1 hour ago, Car Boot said:

The late Tony Benn once proposed asking five questions of the powerful men in the EU:

 

What power do you have?

Where did you get your power?

In whose interests do you exercise your power?

To whom are you accountable?

How can we get rid of you?

 

“Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system", Tony Benn.

 

The UK electorate has no power to vote out either the European Commission or the European Council. 

 

The European Council determines the political priorities of the European Union. The EU Commission has the sole power to write legislation. Both are undemocratic and their power is deliberately kept well away from the European voters.

 

Trump tells UK: ‘Leave EU without a deal and send Farage to negotiate’. 

[Voice of reason 0]

10 hours ago, Longcol said:

No single country can get their own way. They can join with like minded colleagues in other countries to gain influence.

 

Bit like Yorkshire & Humberside MP's in Parliament -  54 MP's out of 650.

Yorkshire isn't a sovereign state though.

It's not about forcing the others. Its the opposite.

Any EU has stated they'll just do Council decision stuff, which negates the approval of pesky parliamentarians.

[Cyclone 10]

18 minutes ago, Voice of reason said:

Yorkshire isn't a sovereign state though.

It's not about forcing the others. Its the opposite.

Any EU has stated they'll just do Council decision stuff, which negates the approval of pesky parliamentarians.

It's only a difference of scale isn't it.  There's no fundamental difference between arbitrary borders drawn at the county or the country level.

2 hours ago, Car Boot said:

The late Tony Benn once proposed asking five questions of the powerful men in the EU:

 

What power do you have?

Where did you get your power?

In whose interests do you exercise your power?

To whom are you accountable?

How can we get rid of you?

 

“Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system", Tony Benn.

 

The UK electorate has no power to vote out either the European Commission or the European Council. 

 

The European Council determines the political priorities of the European Union. The EU Commission has the sole power to write legislation. Both are undemocratic and their power is deliberately kept well away from the European voters.

 

Not true in the least is it.

 

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/23/the-european-council

 

The european council is made up of the elected heads of the european states.

 

Quote

The European Council, formed by the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, provides the necessary impetus for the development of the European Union and sets out the general political guidelines.

 

[L00b 441]

On 31/05/2019 at 23:20, WiseOwl182 said:

How much relevance do UK representatives have in the EU parliament?

 

1) Very little - less than 10% of MEPs and unlikely to influence much. An irrelevance.

 

2) A lot - the UK's MEPs are very influential and relevant. The Brexit Party MEPs willcause havoc because of their relevance.

Was that a question to me, then?

 

Because it looks like you’ve answered it yourself (moreover, wrongly so; as I pointed out to you when you first made that question-and-answer post, and as other posters have since pointed out to you as well after that re-post).

 

The 73 UK MEPs, as a whole but by themselves, have relevance in the EU Parliament that is proportional to the population of the UK. Same setup for every other EU Member State, eg tiny Luxembourg here with its 6 MEPs, France with its 72 MEPs (etc) - for a grand total of 751 MEPs.

 

Given that context, the 29 Brexit Party MEPs (less than half of the U.K. total) have less than half as much relevance as  U.K. MEPs as a whole...and I’ll let you come to terms on your own, about how much ‘havoc’ these 29 would manage to wreak by themselves out of 751 (because I’ve already explained all the above days ago).

 

Now, of course, Mr Farage is busy seeking alliances with other groups of Eurosceptic MEPs, and some of these have very strong whiffs of fascism about them, but well. So the 29 Brexit Party MEP might manage to wreak some havoc after all (if they stay in the EU Parliament long enough), if they manage to join forces with enough like-minded MEPs of other European countries...I doubt you’ll see the irony in that, even though it’s properly off-the-scale

Edited June 3, 2019 by L00b

[jaffa1 10]

On 02/06/2019 at 07:47, Car Boot said:

The late Tony Benn once proposed asking five questions of the powerful men in the EU:

 

What power do you have?

Where did you get your power?

In whose interests do you exercise your power?

To whom are you accountable?

How can we get rid of you?

 

“Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system", Tony Benn.

 

The UK electorate has no power to vote out either the European Commission or the European Council. 

 

The European Council determines the political priorities of the European Union. The EU Commission has the sole power to write legislation. Both are undemocratic and their power is deliberately kept well away from the European voters.

 

I never thought Tony Benn had the brains to come up with these comments,  it's  a pity his son in Parliament  doesn't  think the same way.