« 11 June 04. Local elections | Main | 22 June 04. Hostage executions »

14 June

Well, there's good news and bad news. First, on the European election front, some rays of sunshine: both Green MEPs, Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas, held their seats, despite challenges from both UKIP and Respect. Hurray for that. Lucas in particular is a personal favourite of mine: one of this country's most committed and talented politicians and a rising star. When the Green Party eventually bites the bullet and decides to elect a proper leader, instead of its current mush of having two 'principal speakers', Lucas gets my vote by a mile.

Good, too, too see Labour get another kicking, and even more excellent to see the Tories kicked in the gonads (isn't it always?). Not that either of them look like making any serious changes to their approaches as a result, but at least they can't mistake the message: a plague on both your houses.

As for UKIP: well, scepticism about the EU is perfectly legitimate, and crosses traditional political lines. You don't have to be a xenophobe or a raving right-winger to worry about the loss of democratic control to a supranational body which we have little influence over. It certainly bothers me. That said, UKIP's definition of 'independence' is a sham. They would happily pull us out of the EU only to hand over more economic and political power to less democratic and far more damaging bodies like the WTO and even NAFTA - which has all the disadvantages of the EU without any of its benefits: social chapter, human rights guarantees, working hours directive, good environmental protection laws, etc. The Green Party have produced an interesting attack on UKIP for just this reason. Read it here

As for the other bad news of the weekend: 2-1 to France. What can I say? Except that, for once, I am at one with The Sun: We Wuz Robbed. I'm sick as a parrot, Brian. Get me another lager, and make it quick.

Posted by paul at June 14, 2004 10:45 AM

Comments

Post a comment