Week 21 2014

Tendring Topics……..on line

Thursday’s Vote

          This Thursday (22^nd May 2014) is voting day for the European Parliamentary Elections.  Please don’t just yawn and ignore it.  The European Parliament is the one truly democratic institution of the European Union.  It is more democratic than our own parliament in Westminster since its members are elected by proportional representation instead of ‘first past the post’ as in UK parliamentary elections.  That means that every vote for any party can count.  It is impossible for a candidate to be elected by a minority of the electorate, as is possible in UK parliamentary elections..  It also means that minority parties’ voices are heard – in proportion to the number of electors who voted for them.

            That is why in European parliamentary elections we vote for the party rather than the individual candidate (though the names of the candidates from each party are listed).  That’s how it is that there are UKIP members of the European Parliament with no purpose other than to destroy the institution that made it possible for their voices to be heard!  It is true that, thanks to the determination of some national governments (including our own) to limit the European Parliament’s powers, these are not as wide and all-embracing as they should be.   However European parliamentary power is steadily increasing and will continue to do so if we, the electors, demand it.

The claim made by UKIP’s leader that 70 percent of British laws now come from the European Parliament is totally untrue. Although exposed as false in Radio 4’s More or Less programme on Friday 2^nd May, it continues to be quoted as a fact.

Our own European Constituency covers the whole of ‘Greater East Anglia’ and there are no less than nine parties hoping for seats.   They are ‘Independence from Europe’, ‘British National Party (BNP), Christian People’s Alliance, Conservatives, English Democrats’, ‘Labour’,’ Liberal Democrats’, NO2EU, and ‘Green’.

            Some of those parties you will never have heard of – and the chances are you’ll never hear of them again!  I think that those which may reasonably hope to secure enough votes to get at least one member from East Anglia in the European Parliament are Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UKIP and Green.

            Many people who are entitled to vote are totally disillusioned with the main traditional parties.  Conservative policies have widened the gap between wealthy and poor that is, I believe, at the root of many of Britain’s troubles today.   They have run down our conventional armed forces that can have a peace-making and peace-keeping role (as well as being a disciplined force available to help with civil emergencies) while slavishly preserving our nuclear weapons and our Trident submarine fleet. These weapons and the submarine fleet have no purpose other than destroying our fellow men, women and children.  They have totally failed to deter the many acts of aggression, violence and terrorism that have sullied recent history.  If nuclear weapons were ever to be used it would probably herald the end of civilisation as we know it – possibly the extinction of human-kind.

            Sadly, Labour Governments have failed even to try to follow the lead of pioneers of the Labour Movement like Kier Hardy and George Lansbury.  In ten years of New Labour Government the gap between the incomes of the wealthiest and poorest actually increased.   They too are prepared to spend millions on a nuclear ‘ultimate deterrent’ that doesn’t deter!  Ramsey MacDonald is said to have failed because he was ‘dazzled by duchesses’.  Tony Blair and his New Labour colleagues have been ‘blinded by billionaires!’ and their policies are merely modifications of those of the Conservatives.

As for the Liberal Democrats.  There’s really no point in heeding any of their pre-election promises.  The issue of student fees has illustrated that they’ll abandon any of their high principles for the sake of a few seats in the government and the empty title of ‘Deputy Prime Minister. 

            No, I can’t summon up any enthusiasm for Conservatives, Labour or Lib.Dems.  Neither can thousands of others – many for quite different reasons than mine.    This disillusion could give UKIP its chance – Nigel Farage, its leader, is quite sure that it will.  I do urge readers of this blog not to let it. Apart from a determination to leave the EU nobody can be quite sure what UKIP’s policies are because its leader has disowned everything on its former manifesto.  Leaving the EU will not solve all, or any of Britain’s problems.  We are inextricably part of Europe, historically, geographically and economically.  The EU gives our exporters, of both goods and services a ‘level playing field’ in which to conduct their services.  Those ‘petty regulations’ that some find so irksome ensure the health and safety of all EU workers.   The countries of the EU are our biggest market. Of course we need to sell our goods and services elsewhere as well.  There is nothing that the EU does to prevent or discourage this.  Exporters are almost unanimous in their support of EU membership.  Leaving would cost thousands of jobs.  Is that really what we want?

            Apart from getting out of Europe the speeches of prominent Ukippers suggest  that, on the whole, they support the policies and the attitudes of the extreme right-wing of the Conservatives.  They don’t believe in man-made climate change and would stop the provision of wind turbines and solar farms.  They’d encourage ‘fracking’ -  provided it wasn’t carried out in their own back yard!  They’d permit fox-hunting again and allow smoking in pubs and public places where it is now forbidden.  Is that really what we want?

            Fortunately it is possible to react to disillusion with the main parties by voting for a party whose policies are almost the exact opposite of UKIP.   The Green Party, already a force to be reckoned with within Europe, and (unlike UKIP) with representation in our House of Commons, realizes that, unless we do something about it, climate change will destroy ‘the best-laid plans of mice, men’ and political parties.  Have we already forgotten the storms and devastating floods that caused such havoc in this country just a few months ago, the typhoons in the Philippines and the Indian sub-continent, the bush fires in Australia and the arctic conditions in the USA?  The policies of ‘the Greens’ give human-kind its best chance of survival.  They support continued membership of the EU because they realize that to be effective in protecting us from the worst effects of climate change, action needs to be taken on a regional and global level.

Polling day is on Thursday but thousands of us, who vote by post, have already voted.  I have, and I voted GREEN!   Those who wish their grand-children and great grand-children to inherit a world worth living in, will do the same!

Cause and Effect

The devastating mine disaster in a recently privatised coal mine in Turkey that claimed over 300 lives is a timely warning of the possible result of a free market economy, unfettered by the kind of ‘pettifogging health and safety provisions’ imposed by Brussels, from which Nigel Farage and, rather less stridently, David Cameron and George Osborne, are promising to free us!  It certainly does produce higher dividends for shareholders and encourage investment; tough about all the widows and orphans, but you can’t make omelettes……………

Green Party Policies

Since I wrote the above, the Green Party has launched its campaign for the European and local government elections.  Afterwards leader Natalie Bennet was interviewed by the BBC.  Below is the BBC report of that interview.

Speaking to the BBC after the campaign launch, Natalie Bennett said the party hoped to treble its number of MEPs to six, and would need a swing of just 1.6% to do so.  Even with a small number of representatives in the European Parliament, it is "possible to make a real difference" she continued, "as we have done on issues like bankers' bonuses, on fishing policy, on making Europe more friendly and more social".

The party aims to scrap tuition fees and prescription charges in England and Wales, increase child benefit, and renationalise the railways and energy companies These policies would be costed by the 2015 general election, she said, but the party was considering imposing a top rate of income tax of more than 50% on the highest earners"We need a society that works for the common good, not just the good of the few, which it does at the moment," Ms Bennett said. "We need real change in our society. It's working for the 1%, not the 99% of us. We need decent benefits, we need to make the minimum wage a living wage, and we need to insure that privatisation doesn't keep costing us an absolute fortune.  "What we need is for multinational companies, rich individuals, to be paying their taxes, which they're simply not doing at the moment."

Later, appearing on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Ms Bennett acknowledged that the Greens were "identified with" campaigns against the extraction of shale gas, or fracking. It was, she said, a "very uncertain industry that may very well not get off the ground", she added, and there is "massive and growing public resistance to it" with her party on the "front line" of protests against fracking.

Having read the above, I am now more than ever glad that I voted 'Green' in the European parliamentary elections.  Every one of those Green policies was among those that I included among my political aims a fortnight ago in this blog.