The elections for the European parliament are less than a calendar month away. (That’s for the UK; we are holding our Euro elections on Thursday, which is traditional here. Other nations will use different days of the week. If your connection is fast enough, you can interrogate a map here.)  I have added a link in the left-hand column.

There are positive reasons for voting Liberal Democrat on June 4th. Wales currently has no Liberal Democrat MEP, yet the Liberal grouping in Europe is the third largest in the European Parliament. I believe it is important that there is a Welsh voice in this influential group.

Liberal Democrat MEPs have already made their mark with campaigns in the European Parliament. Some have been successful, and I hope to detail these between now and June 4th. However, others have failed: reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the misuse of MEPs’ expenses and the wasteful duplication of parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg come to mind. More Liberal Democrat MEPs would give a boost to these campaigns.

Then there is the big negative reason for making sure you vote for a progressive party. As a fellow Liberal Democrat councillor in Lancashire, Richard Baum, puts it: “the European elections and their different system of voting to normal gives fringe parties like the BNP much more of a chance of winning a seat and a voice than local and general elections. If for no other reason, we should use our votes to stop racist extremists like them from gaining undue exposure.”

Peter Hain, Neil Kinnock, John Prescott and other Labour MPs have similarly warned of these dangers. There are those, for instance Jonathan Calder and Peter Black, who see this purely as a move to frighten their core voters into the polling booth. It is a mathematical impossibility for BNP to win a Welsh seat, Peter reckons. Well, nobody knows how far the Labour vote is going to fall on June 4th. If there is a catastrophic fall for Labour, then BNP could well step into the breach. Moreover, there is a considerable racist element to the Labour vote: witness the constituency which Borders and Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, was appealing to in his statement against the Gurkhas last month.That vote, disappointed by New Labour’s economic performance, could well switch to BNP. We are fighting the BNP and apathy.

On a more positive note: there will be a chance to see candidates from all four main parties next week in Swansea. According to yesterday’s Evening Post, there will be a debate at 19:30 on May12th at the Environment Centre in Swansea. The Post reports that the debate is being organised by Stop Climate Chaos Cymru, but at the time of writing there is no confirmation on their web-site.

   Leave a comment