European elections southeast protest vote

With over 100 candidates to vote for I have to admit to being totally confused, click on the link to view them all on the TDC website http://www.thanet.gov.uk/docs/SoPN%20-%20version%202.doc on second thoughts don’t bother as it’s part of the wonder of TDCIT, so it is so small that you can’t actually read it on most monitors.

I have just gone and done the job properly so click on this link instead http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts2/id107.htm see what I mean a formidable list.

To be perfectly honest before the expenses scandal it was my intention to vote for the Conservatives, so there was no problem with this complex table, now I wish to register some sort of protest vote.

My reason is simple, even David Cameron one of the least besmirched of our Conservative politicians has paid back expenses money that he wouldn’t have done, had the Daily Telegraph not published details of his claims.

Now although I want this to be a protest vote, I don’t want this to be a wasted vote, after the expenses issue it’s not going to the Lib Dems Conservatives or Labour and I certainly won’t be voting for the BNP, so my problem now is who to vote for.

By that I mean which other candidates have a cat in hell’s chance of getting in and do any of the candidates have views that I broadly support. There is also the side issue of do any of the candidates have any connection with this part of Kent and would they be aware of Thanet’s problems?

I suppose one option here is to vote for UKIP but there seems something a little incongruous about voting for a party to have seats in a parliament they want no part of.

For me the single biggest issue at the moment is that we are reaching a point where ordinary people are scared to venture onto our town centre streets in the evening, my customers come from all over the south east and I have recently heard this said about the following towns: Margate, Broadstairs, Canterbury and St Albans.

I am not talking about frail old ladies here but ordinary chaps between 18 and 65 and frankly I am becoming reluctant to walk out of my own front door in evenings.

So before voting for any politician I would like their views on this issue and their possible solutions to it.

I am also very concerned about environmental issues, particularly those relating to Thanet, so perhaps I should vote for the Green Party, but I have reservations about what I believe to be their views on costal defences, the view that many of them should be abandoned and nature be let to take its course, as this would have disastrous consequences for Thanet.

In terms of Europe my main concern is to have MEPs that will curb the worst of the excesses of the unelected Brussels bureaucrats that are writing much of the legislation that now governs Britain, much of which is unworkable in practice.

Investigation of the European Parliament website has confirmed that there is some sort of proportional representation in place I am afraid to say that my ignorance of the European parliament is really showing now. The trouble is that when we first voted to join the EEC it was that, an economic community and it’s position as a governing and legislative organisation has crept up on me pretty much unawares.

I am so used to the first past the post system that I pretty much only ever voted Labour or Conservative and frankly it’s only since my recent brushes with the council and an awareness of our society breaking down that I have taken more than a passing interest in politics.

The framework of alliances that form the European political parties is different to what I am used to click on the link to see your existing MEPs http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/search.do?country=GB&zone=South+East&language=EN if you then click on the individual MEP’s name you can see their party as one would understand it in the UK.

It would also appear from what David Cameron has been saying that the Conservatives intend to align them selves in a different way, although I don’t really understand this properly.

The one good thing to come out of the MPs expenses issue is that it has made me think seriously about how I am going to vote in the European elections, with the local elections I always vote for individuals that have responded to and helped resolve issues that I have raised in the past, so there is no problem choosing here and I will be making no protest vote in these elections.

I am now wondering if it is possible to get the views of the over 100 candidates standing and assimilate them in some way, perhaps it’s possible to email them all I don’t know.

I have just had a look at MEPs expenses click on the link to do so http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/expert/staticDisplay.do?language=EN&id=39 it looks to be fairly well organised, however after recent events I am much more suspicious of politicians motives.

Anyway at the very least now I feel it my duty to work out what the major European parties stand for and the views of those independents standing.

What really worries me about all levels of government that we are subject to at the moment is that to a lesser or greater degree our elected politicians have lost site of their purpose, which should be to make certain that the unelected civil servants conform to the wishes of the electorate.

A talking shop of people receiving unreasonable expenses, having little or no effect on the legislation that is produced and the decisions made isn’t adequate.

I would appreciate any comments that would help me understand how best to make an effective protest vote as this is what I intend to do.