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Firstly, and most importantly: if you have a vote tomorrow, Use It! There are some seriously unpleasant people hoping to mobilise their supporters and get elected because everyone else is disillusioned with politics so won't bother. The BNP are evil - if you don't go out and vote, you're helping them to get elected.
I'm pro-EU. I think the LibDems are the only pro-EU party standing round here. I think you should vote for a pro-EU party.
There are an awful lot of myths about the EU. They don't want to ban selling beer in pints, for example, despite what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gerald_duck said. EU laws account for somewhere around 10-20% of UK laws, not the 75% that UKIP claim. And so on.
The EU is, I think, a good thing. It enables its 27 member states to reach agreement on issues that need tackling at a supernational level such a climate change, it facilitates the free movement of trade and people across Europe, it supports development in poorer parts of the EU (including bits of the UK), etc. I think the working time directive is a good thing that protects workers from exploitation (and the TUC agrees with me). I like the convenience of the Euro (though I don't claim economic competence to judge if it's a good thing for us to join); I appreciate the fact I can apply for jobs in other European Universities and compete with natives of those countries on a level playing field (cf the USA and Canada, where they must prefer native candidates). The EU standardizes things to ensure the market in goods across the EU is fair. Your MEPs work for you, and can influence EU policy on your behalf.
That's not to say the EU is perfect - for one thing, it needs to do a better job of communicating what it's up to to its citizens, CAP is dreadfully in need of reform, and the parliament is subject to the usual sort of horse-trading you get where there's no clear party in control. It needs to address the effects of expansion on its governance, too. These are things we should be trying to fix from within the EU, however, not shouting from the sidelines.
You can find out more about what the EU does here.
Oh, and UKIP should stop putting Churchill on their electioneering stuff - he was advocating a United States of Europe back in 1946.
I'm pro-EU. I think the LibDems are the only pro-EU party standing round here. I think you should vote for a pro-EU party.
There are an awful lot of myths about the EU. They don't want to ban selling beer in pints, for example, despite what
gerald_duck said. EU laws account for somewhere around 10-20% of UK laws, not the 75% that UKIP claim. And so on.The EU is, I think, a good thing. It enables its 27 member states to reach agreement on issues that need tackling at a supernational level such a climate change, it facilitates the free movement of trade and people across Europe, it supports development in poorer parts of the EU (including bits of the UK), etc. I think the working time directive is a good thing that protects workers from exploitation (and the TUC agrees with me). I like the convenience of the Euro (though I don't claim economic competence to judge if it's a good thing for us to join); I appreciate the fact I can apply for jobs in other European Universities and compete with natives of those countries on a level playing field (cf the USA and Canada, where they must prefer native candidates). The EU standardizes things to ensure the market in goods across the EU is fair. Your MEPs work for you, and can influence EU policy on your behalf.
That's not to say the EU is perfect - for one thing, it needs to do a better job of communicating what it's up to to its citizens, CAP is dreadfully in need of reform, and the parliament is subject to the usual sort of horse-trading you get where there's no clear party in control. It needs to address the effects of expansion on its governance, too. These are things we should be trying to fix from within the EU, however, not shouting from the sidelines.
You can find out more about what the EU does here.
Oh, and UKIP should stop putting Churchill on their electioneering stuff - he was advocating a United States of Europe back in 1946.
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