http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mI8678VyRM

First I've heard of them... the vid kind of reminded me of those educational-type ones they used to show kids

The English Democrats are a waste of space. They suffer from more internal bickering than even UKIP, they lost their big-hitter for the London elections too.

EDIT: I personally have no problem with the United Kingdom being a net contributor to the EU - there are countries that need the extra cash far more than we do.

I'm also narked that they're bringing up UK-only issues as issues for the European Parliament elections. The EU has no influence over devolution in the United Kingdom, so why raise it as an issue for these elections?

Isn't that why you sign up to the IMF? I ask out of ignorance.

Depends on the circumstances for me - it becomes a bit of a nonsense when France (for instance) just blatantly ignores a ruling. Or the inability to set your own interest rates if you adopt the Euro, which leads into issues like the EU propping up Germany with our money, if that's how you look at it.



The EU can make life a nightmare for our farmers and fishermen though, for instance (a big issue here in NI). I believe our government adapts EU law to each devolved territory, so you could argue you'd want representation in the EU parliament.

Not really no. And besides, the money from the EU goes towards building better infrastructure throughout the European Union.



If France ignores a ruling, or the UK does (as it does, on many occasions) then they get sued, simple. I doubt it's ever going to stop. If each country in the Eurozone could set their own interest rates then they immediately stop having a single currency, which kind of defeats the whole object of having it. No one interest rate is going to suit the whole of the Eurozone, just as one interest rate set by the Bank of England suits the whole of the United Kingdom - there are always winners and losers.



Not quite, each Directive must be implemented locally (and regulations adopted as they come), but there's no scope to change them. Representation in the EU parliament can of course affect laws that come out of Brussels. What the EU can't do however, is alter the devolution settlement in the United Kingdom, so raising that issue at the European elections is a complete non-starter. Only Westminster (and thus a GE) can change the devolution settlement.

As for the fishing policy, a lot of the blame rests with UK fishermen so I'm not going to empathise too much. There's no such thing as "British waters" so I wish they'd stop bitching about it. It's not like British fishermen don't swan off to Spanish & French waters.

British fishermen manage to piss off the Norwegians in the North Sea too.

I didn't realise that there were that many deep sea fishermen that were Chelsea supporters.

Sharks

Well, if you're going to the wall (possibly cos you can't set your own interest rates), that's kind of why you'd want the IMF to step in, shameful as it's said to be. I'd sooner see the money spent in this country, especially since we're looking at being taxed silly in the next decade (at the very least)...





I appreciate what you're saying, but some countries are almost always gonna be far more robust to it than others. I never appreciated the difference until I saw the effect it had in the Irish Republic.





You'll still want a 'voice' though, otherwise what's the point of having European elections? And I'd be the first to argue even that's a bit of a waste of time, since the person you're voting for often seems to join a 'voting bloc' anyway, which still manages to get little done seemingly...

As an Englishman, living in Wales I am sometimes surprised by Welsh Nationalism, but generally I am very happy to have the Welsh Assembly to make localised decisions on Health & Education. Either Britain is "Britain" or we end-up with some kind of Balkanisation with Scotland, England (Northern) Ireland, and Wales as small "statelets", each unable to compete with France, Germany or Italy, and more liable to end up like Lithuania than Sweden or Norway. Listening to the noxious Alec Salmond spouting his anti-English bile should show us where that can lead....

The first I heard of them was on Friday when I got my postal ballot paper. The guy running for Doncaster Mayor sounded quite good. He pretty much wanted to cut down on pointless bureaucracy and the jobs that rely on it. Hell, he's even offering to cut his own pay by over 50% if he gets elected.

They couldn't have picked a better time to run...