The now-enacted will of (some of) the people

[blandy]

5 hours ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Accountability is a big issue. I have four European MPs representing my area: 2 UKIP, 1 Labour, 1 Conservative. So who who should I complain to if I have a grievance, and who should I not vote for should I think they failed?...

Er, "them" - complain to them. Don't vote for some/all of them if you don't like some/all of them.

I agree about lack of information from "them" of what they have for haven't done. Though to be fair (round here at least) the same applies to my local councillors and MP. You could always look at their internet pages or twitters or whatever people use these days.

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My local council send me a leaflet quite often to tell me what they have achieved.

I can judge the government by what they do.

But I never hear anything the European MPs have achieved, I can see UKIP giving a long speech to an empty or contemptuous chamber, but what have they achieved and what have they done for me?

In the absence of any information, on what basis are they accountable?

You can judge the Gov't by what they do and ditto the EU. I mean if I don't like the UK Gov't (I don't) I can judge them. I cannot vote Cameron out, or the tories out. The local MP has a 10K majority (or thereabouts). I no more vote for Cameron or Gove or May than for Junkers or whoever at the EU.

It's maybe an exception, but I mentioned a lot earlier in this thread that one of the (former) MEPs for here did communicate and did a really good job. I think the key thing was I sent him an e mail about something, and from then on I presumably got added to his list of people to e mail with info - I got far more from him than ever  from my local MP who at best sends a standard letter when I complain to him, or encourage him to do this or that.

You can contact your MEP from here

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There are 73 UK MEPs. They are elected in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Other EU member states elect MEPs from their countries. Elections take place every five years.  The next elections will be in 2019.

The UK is divided into twelve electoral regions made up of the nations and regions of the UK. Each region has between three and ten MEPs and each MEP in a region represents each person living there: Eastern - 7, East Midlands - 5, London - 8, North East - 3, North West - 8, South East - 10, South West - 6, West Midlands - 7, Yorkshire and Humber - 6, Wales - 4, Scotland - 6, Northern Ireland - 3. 

For example, if you live in Cambridge, all seven Eastern region MEPs represent you and you can contact any or all of them. If you are not sure, please phone us on 020 7227 4300.

Contact llnks follow the extract above on the webpage.

[mjmooney]

Aren't UKIP MEPs rather like turkeys voting for Christmas? 

[chrisp65]

17.05.2016

Nigel Farage: if it's a narrow defeat for the leave campaign we could run the referendum again 

David Cameron: Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi leader of ISIS would be happy if you vote Brexit 

Boris Johnson: EU has banned bananas being sold in bunches of more than three

[mjmooney]

This is turning into one of those contests like small heath vs. Manure, where you wish both sides would lose.

(See also: Clinton vs. Trump).

[tonyh29]

I hope trump wins (not sure if he is Small Heath or MAn u though )

ive no real agreement with his policies I'm just fed up with US celebs showing us how much better than us they are as they jump on a bandwagon they probably don't even understand .

That the alternative is Clinton means once we see off the EU we should do the yanks a favour and let them join the Uk and prosper under the leadership of Prime Minister Johnson 

[a m ole]

I am so repulsed by both sides I don't think I'll vote. I was going with remain but both campaigns have shown themselves to be entirely self-serving - thinly veiled by disgraceful fear mongering and entirely speculative bullshit about electricity bills, new jobs and cucumber regulations and whatever.

It's an absolute farce.

Edited May 17, 2016 by a m ole

[Chindie]

An entirely predictable farce.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

which side benefits from a low-turnout?

[Chindie]

Out, probably.

I don't think the turnout will be particularly low however.

[villakram]

Lizzy may not be pleased.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

The Sun rolling out the Queen. Surprised they did it this early.

[MakemineVanilla]

10 hours ago, mjmooney said:

This is turning into one of those contests like small heath vs. Manure, where you wish both sides would lose.

(See also: Clinton vs. Trump).

The stupidity of one has been created by the reaction to the stupidity of the other.

[chrisp65]

News this morning that my local beach has been awarded a blue flag for the holiday season.

It's probably worth noting, that among all the crazy EU legislation we don't want that costs us millions, one piece we in the UK have particularly resisted is cleaning up the sea. It took from the legislation being passed in the 1970's right through to the 1990's for the UK to grudgingly accept it. So we decided quite late on to comply. 

Hopefully, if we drop out of the EU, this can be one of the first crazy euro expenses we drop and we can just start pumping millions of litres of untreated human shit straight to sea again, via open pipes. Like the good old days.

On the down side, that fish was claimed by the Spanish.

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

Hopefully, if we drop out of the EU, this can be one of the first crazy euro expenses we drop and we can just start pumping millions of litres of untreated human shit straight to sea again, via open pipes. Like the good old days.

you must have missed this Panorama show

http://www.sas.org.uk/sas-tv/bbc-panorama-britains-dirty-beaches-part-1/

 

from the mirror March 2015

Britain’s beaches are awash with filthy wet wipes as more families are using them for personal hygiene and flushing them down the loo instead of binning them

 

from The torygraph 2012 

It is significantly more [beaches failing],” she said. “It is because we have had this terrifically wet summer. The rain not only runs off farmland but roads, drains and sewerage systems.”

 

so clean beaches thanks to the EU   , meh

But whose to say  that we wouldn't have implemented our own laws anyway ?  The Clean Air Act, was passed in the UK in 1956 .... long before we joined the European Community  for example 

 

[chrisp65]

It's a rolling programme of improvements, it will take years. But it is being improved.

Locally, we've just got our blue flags back. It's not anywhere near a perfect system, but bloody hell, I know that the water now is (usually) fantastically cleaner than it used to be. You didn't have to test the water in the 70's and the 80's it stank of sewage and it had turds rolling in with the waves. We've been lucky that locally Welsh Water have got their act together and spent a ton of money and radically improved the situation. But it isn't universal.

The old system was killing the environment. You wouldn't have eaten a fish caught back then - not that there were many. Now there are fish again, and you can eat them.

Sorry to say, we would not have begun the clean up without EU pressure. The proof of that is in our 20 year resistance to their interfering ways. Although, I guess you could argue we were being stubborn and weren't cleaning our bedroom simply because mum was constantly nagging us to clean our bedroom?

It is a good point about the vague nature of weather on the water quality. Strong rainfall washes dogshit off the land and nitrates out of the soil and carries more dumped sewage further. Perhaps we have to ask why there are so many nitrates being used to over produce subsidised food that then goes to recycling?

It's a far far better system than it was. Not perfect, easily improved, expensive. But better than when we weren't in it. A bit of a metaphor I guess.

Incidentally, that Panorama programme is good. It's 7 years old, but still worth a watch. 

 

[StefanAVFC]

From the amount of uninformed crap I see on Facebook, I have a horrible feeling this will be decided on social media, rather than by any sort of information or policies.

What a shitshow.

[tonyh29]

3 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

From the amount of uninformed crap I see on Facebook, I have a horrible feeling this will be decided on social media, rather than by any sort of information or policies.

What a shitshow.

the same Social media that told us Ed Miliband was going to PM  , that Muslims are going to impose Shiria law on us and hoe every Veteran is living on the streets whilst immigrants get houses lined with gold  

I think you are over estimating Social medias importance   ..

Project Fear are ramping up the pressure and are on the final straight , the only thing likely to stop them now will be some seismic event around the 20th June

 

[mjmooney]

6 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

the same Social media that told us Ed Miliband was going to PM  , that Muslims are going to impose Shiria law on us and hoe every Veteran is living on the streets whilst immigrants get houses lined with gold  

I think you are over estimating Social medias importance   ..

Project Fear are ramping up the pressure and are on the final straight , the only thing likely to stop them now will be some seismic event around the 20th June

 

It's been said on here before, but who are you referring to as 'Project Fear'? Could equally apply to the Leave camp as the Stay-ers. 

[tonyh29]

1 minute ago, mjmooney said:

It's been said on here before, but who are you referring to as 'Project Fear'? Could equally apply to the Leave camp as the Stay-ers. 

Project Fear has always been the remain campaign   ... I don't dispute the tactics employed by both can be deemed that way , but the Tag was applied to Remain first , so they get to keep the title

[Wainy316]

I associate project fear with leave.  The immigrants, the immigrants, the immigrants.