User Comments

1. 

   10/22/09

   iratedog

   Not sure if this worked...

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2. 

   10/22/09

   clioandme

   Not sure about England, but I remember a time when people in Germany treated the EU elections as something not very serious, as an opportunity to cast a protest vote. The result in some cases was a rather strong showing for a party ideologically similar to the BNP. I'm thinking about the Republikaner in an election sometime right before the wall fell, I believe. Was something similar going on here? Did some think this wasn't a "real" election and cast their vote as a supposedly meaningly protest vote?

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   1. 

      10/23/09

      iratedog

      The EU elections get an appalling turn out in the UK. Some BNP votes could have been as protest for MP's expenses, but there is real worry about immigration here too.
      One thing that really annoys me about immigration is no-one allows enough time for gov't initiatives to take hold. Population change is a long and drawn out process. You can't close the borders to the UK over night, and we shouldn't want to anyway.
   2. 

      10/23/09

      clioandme

      A small turnout says a lot.
      
      Britain is kind of divided on the whole EU thing too, right? If the Lisbon Treaty doesn't go into effect before your next election, there'll be problems not just from the BNP.
      
      I suppose the bad economy also plays into the BNP's hands? Do they offer any positive programs? Or is it all based on negatives like the extremist rhetoric I've seen in Germany and France in the past?