I don't vote, I don't pay community tax

[venta]

If we assume that:

(a) most people don't bother voting in elections[*]
(b) people are more likely to complain when they don't like something than offer praise when they do

does it follow that parties like UKIP will always do well in elections for MEPs ?

[*] Turn-out figures show that about 1 in 3 people voted in the European elections last week.

Comments

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I don't really understand the point of voting UKIP for Europe. It seems to be a way of saying "I want out of the EU". But cleverly done in such a way that saying so cannot possibly make it happen, since obviously MEPs don't have the power to take us out of Europe. MPs do, but people who vote UKIP for Europe have presumably voted Tory in general elections.

Possibly there are things which UKIP MEPs do that Tory ones don't, but if so they haven't bothered telling me the details. Or maybe the people who want out of the EU treat EU elections as a joke in which it's OK to vote UKIP, but don't feel strongly enough against the EU to vote on that issue in "real" elections.

I guess if UKIP wins any seats in the general election, then Euro-scepticism becomes a viable stance in Westminster.

[john-the-hat.livejournal.com]

c) most people don't think, or only think what the Daily Mail tells them to think, and vote accordingly?

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If the rest of us do nothing about it, yes.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Relatively. I think you can generalise "parties like UKIP" to "parties who aren't the government", noting that the Conservatives came first in Wales despite the Welsh Assembly being a Labour - Plaid Cymru coalition.

Getting the arguments against this in first, though, the (Scottish assembly minority administration) SNP did top the poll in Scotland, though, and centre-right governing parties did well in France, Italy, Poland [?], Germany [?? and part of a coalition there] and other places, and there wasn't really as much of a surge in popularity for anti-EU sentiment across Europe as might have been expected.

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

People in the UK don't understand the EU. For most people, EU elections (indeed arguably elections generally) are keyword-based. In this case, the keyword is "Europe". UKIP are a single-issue party concerning Europe, therefore they attract a disproportionate share of the vote.

There's the expenses thing, too, which bizarrely has benefited UKIP despite the fact that they appear to be responsible for the most egregious expenses scandal so far.

[(Anonymous)]

On a more general electoral point. Where is the box on the ballot paper saying NONE OF THE ABOVE ARE CREDIBLE OR ACCEPTABLE! Come the next general election we need 100% turnout and, under current systems, 100% spoiled votes to truly express our views about parasitical, self-serving, deceitful moral cripples who either see politics as a career (where keeping their job is more important than any strong convictions), or are in politics for direct or indirect personal benefit. Apologies to the very small minority of MPs who actually put their constituents above personal or party policy. Rant now over.....till November.