My postal vote turned up yesterday and I still have no idea who to vote for. Here in Yorkshire & Humber region, there are 10(!) parties bidding to win one or more of the 6 seats up for grabs. All but one of the 10 have 6 candidates each (despite the odds of winning more than 2/3 seats being vanishingly small. Here are party political broadcasts for the runners and riders in the order they appear on the ballot paper.
An Independence From Europe (The poor man’s UKIP who have stuck ‘an’ on the front of their name so they are top of the ballot paper)
British National Party (For knuckle-draggers in England, Scotland and Wales)
Conservative Party (For hardworking people who want to work hard and get on)
English Democrats (For knuckle-draggers in England only)
Green Party (Who Jesus would vote for)
Labour Party (“Let’s hope people will vote for us because we’re not the Tories”)
Liberal Democrats (“Did we mention we’re the Party of In? What’s that? You’re not listening? But we’re the Party of In”)
NO2EU (Eurosceptic trade unionists)
Can’t find a PPB for them, here is their website: http://www.no2eu.com/
UKIP (The People’s Army *snigger*)
Yorkshire First (Int Yorkshire Great?) Not sure if this is an official vid, it’s not really a PPB. Here’s their website.
alittleecon 
Vote Green. They favour a referendum on leaving the EU, while not favouring any of the other fruitcakery of UKIP.
Not on the election leaflet I got. They favour unilateral open borders to the rest of the world and are very much ‘in’. Which at least is consistently bonkers rather than the “its a great idea to be completely open to 500 million people in Europe, but not anywhere else for some reason” current position.
Actually, the open-the-borders-to-the-rest-of-the-world accusation isn’t true at all. It’s been stated quite explicitly by the Green leadership that they are in favour of border controls, but only that they need to be kept humane.
As for the EU, no matter what the leaflet you received talks about, here is what the Green Party’s position is; –
“I support a referendum on our membership of the EU because I am pro-democracy.”
“The Green Party is opposed to the objectives, structure and policies of the EU as currently constituted.”
“[The Eurozone] is run by the European Central Bank (ECB), a collection of bankers appointed by Council subject to no effective democratic control, but able to override the democratic decisions made by member countries.”
“The Green Party is opposed to EMU and the single currency. We believe it undermines local and regional economies.”
“The Green Party is opposed to the UK joining the Eurozone. We are committed to a referendum on any such decision and will join the campaign for a ‘No’ vote in any such referendum.”
“The Green Party believes that the excessive influence of the Commission and its associated bodies compared to the Council and Parliament is both undemocratic and unaccountable.”
These are all quotes from Caroline Lucas over the last couple of years. It’s clear the Greens are not happy with the European status quo, nor where the union appears to be heading.
Whether they actually want to withdraw from the EU is not completely clear – but there is the perspective that says that the EU needs reform, and the only way to reform it is to be in it.
Another notable point is that most of the aspects of the EU that would be seen as objectionable i.e. the aggressive neoliberal approach and lack of democratic accountability are in perfect accord with the general outlook of the UK Independence Party. They favour the sort of total deregulation of the economy that the EU already practises, plus many of their members want to strip away all manner of democratic structures, such as suffrage for the lower classes. Add to this their blossoming penchant for wanting to use the police to silence their critics, and they are in fact LESS democratic than the EU.
“MG300 We will work to achieve greater equity between the UK and non-Western countries. In step with this, we will progressively reduce UK immigration controls.”
“MG420 We will resist all attempts to introduce a ‘barrier round Europe’ shutting out non-Europeans or giving them more restricted rights of movement within Europe than European Nationals.”
Reblogged this on sdbast.
The problem with the voting system means that the only ‘out of EU’ party that stands a chance of getting a member elected is UKIP 😦
They may be the only party definitively in favour of withdrawal, but even so, they are not the only party in favour of a referendum on the subject. There are pathways to withdrawal through saner parties.
No there are not given the nature of the way the election works.