Seizing back control: The ILX lol brexit is how we're all gonna die thread.

xps no the leaflets are useless, I’ve not paid attention to any of them really

yeah mine are all just big brand labour type things

lol bbc radio 4 treating JRM and his new Victorian book that has even been roundly eviscerated by all the tory rags, with upmost respect and reverence.

Most political research and polling shows time and time again that British people vote with a party or a party leader in mind - unless the candidate is a real trooper of a constituency MP or prominent local figure people just don't care that much about individual candidates at constituency level. People vote for the rosette first and foremost. It's why the CHUK candidates are fucked at national level.

None of this has anything to do with the reason British people have historically not been bothered about EU elections - they just see it as remote and divorced from their everyday concerns. It's a big part of the reason we're in this mess, because a big chunk of population, perhaps a majority, have never seen themselves as truly represented in Europe.

Things are complicated this time around because people do care - but the trigger for voting is 'make a point about Brexit' not 'who do you want representing you in Europe?' It's why support for the two main parties is so low - this is perhaps the first election ever when no one's voting with government of any type in mind. It's almost entirely about political signalling.

FH, the whole of Europe (pretty much) uses a list-based proportional representation system, the UK's not an outlier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_to_the_European_Parliament#Country_by_country

So Ireland is the outlier, maybe. I guess confidence in the EU isn't high generally around Europe.

they just see it as remote and divorced from their everyday concerns

To me this seems right at the heart of the issues I raise. Like in Ireland the EU is a thing we extract benefits from, the candidates are running on the basis of ability to squeeze out benefits from the fat udder of the EU - that comes from us being comfortable with the idea of being a small country. I don't think anyone here sees the EU this way and I'm not sure how you would given there's no accountability whatsoever or no personalities involved or no sense of putting trust in a single elected representative to deliver for you. I mean, sure, that leads to gombeen man politics etc but the depressed alternative is worse.

The idea of the EU delivering things for a region is simply never mentioned or established, and I don't think that's just in this particularly unusual vote post-Brexit.

Most political research and polling shows time and time again that British people vote with a party or a party leader in mind - unless the candidate is a real trooper of a constituency MP or prominent local figure people just don't care that much about individual candidates at constituency level.

Because only two parties ever get in. Because nobody canvasses since there's no proportional representation so if they're not voting for you as number one they don't matter. The EU elections are a fairly comfortable mirror image of the problems with the general system.

Anyway I'll add this here for the lolz but it also illustrates the difference:

If you missed Ben Gilroys video..... pic.twitter.com/w7VZXR51UM

— Alan Kinsella (@electionlit) May 20, 2019

btw make absolutely sure you watch to the very end

I think the lacklustre campaigning comes down to the fact that generally no one has given a shit about EU elections, this is a weird election, especially for labour, there's a lot of doorstep aggro, and there are small/new parties standing that don't have much of a local presence to mobilise. I cld go canvassing tonight but I've made other plans

This will be the first time I've ever voted in them in my life and have 2 votes cos partner couldn't be arsed with any of them + kindly gave me her postal vote. Just purely voting for the rosette because it is the first in my 40+ years there has been a Labour party worth supporting. I'm not even thinking about the EU tbh.

passed ben parked up beside a plasma screen van playing that vid yesterday and laughed at him and no lie he followed me for ten seconds before a companion pulled him back

our chief freeman on the land for any connoisseurs

Nobody cares about the EU elections has always been the problem, and after tomorrow it will be about how much damage the Brexit party can do in a general election, and to whom.

In a GE when brexit party needs a manifesto beyond just brexit stabbed-in-the-back, that is where voters will desert them in droves imo. But I'm probably wrong.

Special mention to Slovakia and their 13% turnout last time, throwing down the gauntlet to the Cezech Republic's 18%.

Gonna make a prediction that the brexit party will never fight a general election, they're just a left luggage for tory votes at the current awkward moment

and the bloc system in the EU Parliament puts Labour in with the Socialist bloc.

This is one factor that's making me lean towards voting Greens in this election - name aside the Socialist bloc ain't exactly great, most of the parties involved are still comparable to Blair-era Labour. Green bloc have a much better track record at fighting lobbying, revolving doors, etc.

And like, despite extensive googling there doesn't seem to be anything online that says who these candidates are, what their background is, their qualifications or beliefs, even Labour's own website is just a list of their names. Not even a photo.

Fair play to the (otherwise useless) Labour leaflet I got tho: out of the four I received (Labour, Green, UKIP, Brexit Party) they're the only ones that actually bothered to list the names of their candidates.

None of this has anything to do with the reason British people have historically not been bothered about EU elections - they just see it as remote and divorced from their everyday concerns. It's a big part of the reason we're in this mess, because a big chunk of population, perhaps a majority, have never seen themselves as truly represented in Europe.

This analysis would be OTM in many other places in the European Union too.

list/PR elections don't help with that disconnect either, though tinkering with the voting system is not likely to help

I won't be voting as a UK resident because it's frankly not my place to do so (I'll most likely be gone within a year anyway). I'd vote at the Romanian consulate if it didn't mean spending 25 bucks (sorry, I sound like a phony when I say 'quid') and at least 5h in all on a round-trip to London.

Not sure the brex p would need much of a manifesto beyond brexit stab in the back to be a faorce in a general election. But as i say, i don't think that's the game

fairly healthy turnouts in ireland, give or take. the eu needs to give out some hurleys.

i've actually had a fair old google now and i honestly can't find any biographies of the labour candidates, apart from a twitter profile for one or two. eventually it leaves me thinking they don't want you to know anything about these candidates. i'll stop harping on now but isn't this completely absurd?

same with lib dems, for the sake of balance.

list-based elections encourage anonymous lists of party aparatchiks, along with the swivel-eyed weirdos of the Brexit party

FernandoHierro I googled all the Labour candidates and most of them have wikipedia pages? Greens more difficult tho, mostly just twitter profiles.

Claire Fox will become an elected politician as a result of this voting
system - if that isn't an argument against it, I give up.

i don't want to vote now unless i can vote for Ben Gilroy

the bit at the end - i don't even know what has happened there.

daniel_rf yeah i guess individually i can find them - i meant more that it surprised me there was no list in one place of who they are, particularly on the party's own websites.

The Brexit Party leaflet I received definitely included the names of their candidates - possibly a tactical error, as one of them is Claire Fox.

The Brexit Party leaflet I received definitely included the names of their candidates - possibly a tactical error, as one of them is Claire Fox.

I doubt anyone who's voting Brexit Party cares who their candidates are.

I thought the bit at the end was showing that Ben Gilroy is so tough that even he himself cannot defeat him? Very metaphysical.

that Nailz he can't twat himself - makes u think!

i took it as an invitation to whale on Ben Gilroy with a hurley stick should i ever come across him irl

kind of like Houdini but with hurling

I keep reading him as bet gilroy - bet he'd love that nickname.

i wondered if he had done himself an injury somehow with all that vigorous hurling. he doesn't look like the fittest man.

xp his complexion is reminscent of some kind of cut of raw pork that i can't put my finger on

Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of Europeanpolitics, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7KRFISWwAA-4od.jpg

this ad is the first of the 9-week UC advertising campaign by the DWP to clear up the lies being spread about it by the lefty bbc.

The message of the Metro ad is similar to the government’s response to today’s UN poverty report. ‘The hardship you experience and see is not real.’ It is the mass gaslighting of the working class and disabled by the Tories. None of us in the press should be assisting them.

— Frances Ryan (@DrFrancesRyan) May 22, 2019

All well and good doing it in a studio, but can he smash it on a cold rainy night at Croke?

he has a specific sort of nervous energy, like that of the man who approaches you in a pub or on an empty train, insistent on telling you something.

I’m reading up about the one independent candidate for the east of England, longevity biologist and philosopher Attila Csordas. He seems p committed to tackling the key issue of the day, biological ageing.

I thought Alex Chiu's immortality rings had already remedied that?

kind of like Houdini but with hurling

― specific goats my way (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 May 2019 09:34 (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ffs man you couldnt get from here to hurley houdini?

ive a cousin a few times removed who handed our current biggest cunt candidate (anti traveller, anti immigrant populist dragons den judge) a kicking on tv last night

would still vote for him first obv

Where's the accountability when you're asked to vote for eight candidates at once or whatever, and one could be Mary Poppins while the next one is Captain Hook?

British Steel's collapse is more awfulness - wonder how much Brexit really has to do with it. Wouldn't have helped, but there is no strategy for anything but finance and landlords.

Captain Hookem is actually on the ballot for UKIP I think.

I think some ppl are overstating the brexit uncertainty element of British Steel in the shit.

this ad is the first of the 9-week UC advertising campaign by the DWP to clear up the lies being spread about it by the lefty bbc.
Honestly the biggest bunch of creeps and when you consider they’d rather spend money telling people they’re not starving, it’s working fine...

Part of Mao's GLF mission statement was for China to equal the UK in steel production within 15years lol

i haven't actually been following this bcz i seem to have a mental mute on anything containing the word "tariff" but presumably trump's manoeuvres re the US steel industry in the last few month haven't had much of a positive impact

banter timeline:

May pulls the vote
May claims that without the vote she doesn't have to provide the post-vote timeline for her replacement - we must instead all row together
1922 committee meets to vote on shortening her period of invulnerability
1922 vote fails by even more than before OR the period is shortened to 6 months, but she wins the VONC by 1 vote