When did you last vote for an MEP?
2014
How did they represent you?
They didn't get in. As only 1 in 200 in my constituency voted for them I wouldn't expect them to get in. 80% of my constituency voted for someone who is now representing them (assuming you call UKIPs presence "representation").
What were their policies?
We have a selection of MEPs representing many sides of the political coin. Now europe doesn't exactly have a lot of say in the day-to-day runnings of the UK, hence there's not a lot of coverage in the media.
The party I voted for have core policies of Freedom of Speech, Privacy, and Copyright/Patent reform. Across the entire of Europe there is one MEP, and she is part of the Greens/EFA group, which has 6 of the 73 seats in the UK (1 in 12), and 50 of the 751 seats in europe (1 in 15).
That group recently has been pushing for more rail, and has highlighted
recent worrying developments in some countries, where for example rail infrastructure such as lines or stations are being closed down even though the EU has been investing huge amounts into these networks
Who did you vote for, and what are their policies?
In this country we just blanket ban things and blame it on the EU because our politicians are lazy.
So you agree we should take more power from lazy UK politicians and put it in to europe?
Again, I want out of EU, not of EC, EEC, EFTA.
Excellent, we won't have a say on EU directives (which don't include smoking), but will still get punished for not applying them quickly enough
http://www.tv2.no/a/3972351
For the first time since the EEA Agreement entered into force in 1994 threatens EU to punish Norway not to follow up the commitments of the agreement.
- There are many in Brussels who are tired of Norway seem to believe that European cooperation is a smorgasbord where you can just pick whatever you want, says the Swedish europaparlamentarikeren Christofer Fjellner from the Christian Democratic European party group EPP, the largest party group in the European Parliament.
That is also the conclusion of the EU's evaluation of Norway. TV 2 has seen a draft of the report coming later this spring. The report is a detailed review of how the EU views the EEA Agreement and the relationship with Norway.
...
- This is the first time the EU seriously threatening to close Norway out of certain parts of the internal market. There should be a frightening signal of Norway. I think Norwegians are aware of how important the internal market is for them, says Christofer Fjellner.
EU means nothing other than "directives" to which our government cow-tows to without blinking an eye. THAT is the lack of democracy.
Again, you're saying our government is undemocratic. Yes, 65% of the electorate voted for the opposition, yes 75% of the electorate has no actual chance of making a change, but saying it's completely undemocratic is a bit far.
Having directives imposed by a parliament that we don't elect, as Norway have to deal with, is undemocratic I agree, a strong reason for staying in europe.
I want our politicians to be accountable for what they do. How is it democratic that there are effectively 2 governments?
Both parliaments are elected from the adult population, via different means, but both are acknowledged as having pros and cons, and are both mostly democratic.
Neither government is elected directly, but instead elected by the representatives of parliament (those representatives in Brussels are more representitive of the voters than the ones in westminster)
I lived in Germany and Holland and they serve their people. As we all know, UK PLC services big business
So you'd agree with the idea that more power for the UK government means more power for big business (leading to things like reduction in workers rights and wages), and more power for the EU means less power for big business, and presumably increased standards of living for workers?