June 4th, 2009

Haven’t blogged in a while, and my old posts seem really lame so I thought I’d discuss the the EU elections coming up soon.
On June the 4th, everyone over the age of 18 in the UK will be entitled to vote in the EU elections, but will they?

Sadly, probably not. The last election in 2004 had a 39% turnout, which is pathetic. The one in 1999 had fewer votes than big brother in that year. So why don’t people vote? The media can be largely to blame for this, so far there has been very little coverage. Some people I’ve spoken don’t even realise its happening soon. Many people in the UK are largely apathetic to politics, especially anything to do with Europe. British eurosceptism has always been prominent, so much so that there are parties dedicated to it (i.e UKIP).

So Why should people vote? The European Parliament has a massive impact on the lives of EU citizens and is democratically elected with 78 British MEPs, only Germany has more. Many people complain about the supposed ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU(an argument I can’t be bothered to go into after doing a presentation on it) but don’t vote in the EU elections. Any laws passed in the EU parliament apply in all member states despite the laws of the nation state. MEPs are there to represent you and your views so your vote can count. An example of an EU law which affects most people is the Roaming directive. This law limits how much mobile operators can charge you for roaming calls in other countries (I probably could of found a better example). One advantage the EU elections has over national ones is the use of the proportional representation electal system rather than first past the post which we have in the UK. This means the percentage of votes roughly works out as the percentage of seats given to political parties, an arguably fairer system. This gives smaller parties a much better chance of gaining representation and having their voices heard.

Which brings me on to my next point, VOTE GREEN. This party are slowly gaining more support and rightly so. They are honest, hard working and want to achieve actual change as their lead candidate in the Eastern Region Rupert Read shows by constantly campaigning and raising awareness. I read his blog occasionally (http://rupertsread.blogspot.com) which is a very insightful read. They are campaigning for many issues which most people would agree with but the larger parties tend to ignore in their ‘Green New Deal’. Basic things such as a living wage, green energy for all and affordable homes. The Green Party by gaining more votes and therefore getting more MEPs in the European Parliament will be able to create awareness about important issues and in turn affect real change.

I’ve skimmed over a lot the issues I’ve written about but please comment, I’d love to Know what other people have to say about what I’ve written.

Uncertainty.

The thoughts I’ve had over the past week or so have generally been focused around wanting to be more involved in politics. The problem is, I find doing anything productive quite difficult (evident in this blog as it hasn’t been updated regularly). Since coming to university last September, I have become more educated and aware of issues and now have a growing urge to do something constructive. We are living in a turning point in history and the decisions leaders of world make now(e.g the current economic crisis), will have implications for the next decade or so. The G20 conference next week is crucial as the leaders of the world get together and decide what to do about the future. (There are some very good articles in the New Statesman http://www.newstatesman.com about it) Yesterday there was a massive demonstration in London called put people first which was attended by around 35,000 people marching for jobs, justice, and climate. I really wanted to go especially as since my uni ran a free coach there, but I was completely daunted by the prospect of going on my own since I wasn’t sure if any of my friends would have gone. Next year I plan to join more societies at uni to meet some more like-minded people and to generally be more pro-active. I am possibly the biggest procrastinator you will ever meet. There is another big demonstration happening on Wednesday next week but I am faced by the same fear of going alone and I am quite overdrawn, not really being able to justify travelling to London.

On a semi-related politics note I came across this song the other day, and despite hip-hop not really being my ‘thing’ I really enjoyed it. It relays a very powerful message and insight to the conflict in Gaza.

Student debt

Universities are increasingly coming more bureaucratic and business-like rather than places of learning. This article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7946912.stm suggests that many vice-chancellors believe we as students should pay more for our education. Seriously is this necessary? University is all ready going to leave me with appox.  £18,000 worth or debt. That is already excessive and take me years to pay back. Who knows what my job chances are when I leave with the current economic crisis as it is. University should not be an elitist institution where only the rich can afford to go. In the modern world education should be available to everyone no matter what your background or your economic situation is like.  When my mum went to uni in the 1980’s she didn’t have to pay a single penny in tuition fees. I would like to see a return to that, education is not about making money but helping people to achieve their full potential.

Every student who reads this, or anyone who believes in anything I have said should sign this petition. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NohigherFees/
Hopefully this will help prevent our tuition fees being raised.

Conservatism.

I can’t stand conservatism. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7943486.stm

This quote particularly annoys me from the MP David Davies “What I’m suggesting is that British soldiers, who I think are our finest young men and women, the cream of society, should also be protected from that sort of gratuitous abuse they experienced last week.”

Finest young men? This is a bit of an assumption, I mean, has he been out at night in a barracks town and seen the squaddies out in full force. Obviously not. I don’t want to generalize and say that all soldiers are bad people, I’m sure that some soldiers are great, but to suggest that they are the “cream of society” just because they’re in the armed forces. I find that disgusting.

More with the anti-war theme there’s a G20 demonstration happening on 1st April organised by the Stop the War coalition which I’m hopefully going to attend. It is a protest demanding that troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are pulled out, ending the Gaza blockade, creating jobs and not bombs amongst other things. You can find out more here http://www.stopwar.org.uk/