So what's the great British (and European) public's reaction to the financial crisis?

[non sociopath skin]

Let's vote in droves for the people who caused it.

O tempora O mores O fuck.

I despair, I really do.

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

1. Too true

The one hope is that it may be unrepresentative. Only 43% voted; and presumably much fewer than that in the UK. And, at least in the UK, the hard-line Euro-sceptics tend to make their protest vote in the Euro-elections, while many others stay at home.

But my hopes aren't that high.

[TheBigotBasher]

2. Not sure that they are voting in "droves" for anyone.

Nor can you say that Brown was not behind this. 80% of Worlds' hedge funds are channelled though the UK to the Cayman Islands. Property, instead of pensions became the area to invest fuelling property prices and this London effect also fuelled other Cities throughout the World and not just the UK.

I personally think that we still have not seen the bottom of this. People on £20k were buying £50k cars on the value of their house. This is a mess.

You will note that Sarkosky said during his campaign exactly what the Brazillian President said of this economic collapse, I doubt you will hear Fox say anything. He said taht this was an Anglo American recession based on their system.

[non sociopath skin]

3. If they'd voted for the left-of-centre in such "droves" most of us would be well pleased.

The Skin

[TheBigotBasher]

4. Britain is a bit odd.

The exception that proves the rule. Sarkosky ran a very good campaign, including using Gordon Brown blaming America for the economic ills. Same in Italy. The recession was a Anglo American problem.

Brown paid a price in Europe for promoting British nationalism (British jobs for British people), just as we all now share that shame because of the elction of bloody NAZIs using HIS campaign slogan.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. CDU and UMP have had good fortune

The current French and German governments came to power with the message that the European social model was a failure and that the high-growth Anglo-Saxon model was the way to go. It was just fortunate for them that the monetarist model imploded before they could do too much damage in their home countries.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. but was the official centre-left offering anything?

If they're still offering up Third Way bullshit then social democrats and democratic socialists are either going to protest vote or more likely, stay at home.

Labour is a key example. Their response to the failure of the monetarist model - industrialisation? No. Pro-union reforms? No. Progressive tax system? No. Instead it was "let's part-privatise the post office."

[fedsron2us]

8. This was posted by someone on another web site

but I think it sums up most of what is wrong in British politics

And that is why the mainstream parties (especially Labour) will continue in their "we know whats best for you" attitude to politics, precisley because they believe that will never happen - and that these sorts of 'freak' voter actions wont be replicated in the only election they think really matters, the general election .........until of course they do!

I have spoken to many party political activists and MPs over time, across the spectrum, and as stated above, they simply "do not get it!". They do not grasp the concept that they get voted out because the great unwashed masses (i.e citizenry) just plain dont agree with their worldview and how the world should be run. It is also in large part because, mostly, they do not have a 'Plan B' or the simple ability to consider/think of alternative approaches to socio-economic issues, i.e what do we do if A doesnt work?. They just keep pushing on with the same failed experiments, believing that A did not work because they somehow did not implement it properly - or worse, that they failed to sufficiently convince the public of its merits.

To the modern labour politician none of their ideas is bad, it is just that the public dont understand them.

They cannot grasp the concept that IF an idea is broadly thought of as good, then the public wont need endless brainwashing to be made to think it is good - the idea will sell itself.

They believe ID cards are a good idea- the public does not.

They believe a war is necessary - the public does not.

The list is almost endless.

In each case we need to be educated as to why they are good for us.

At the same time they patronise us with soundbites, telling us humbly how "we need to listen more to the public", with no intention of doing any such thing. Everytime a party suffers a bad result we get told that they are "going to listen" to what we have to say - and they really believe that we are stupid enough to fall for this simplistic brush off.

The end result of practising politics in this manner is that, over time, you end up disenfranchising vast swathes of the public - and people will walk over to listen to whoever claims to be on your side and understand your problems.

Just shouting through megaphone denouncing the voters for their apathy or their crypto facist sympathies is going to achieve SFA if you do not have any coherent policies that address peoples concerns. At the moment the established parties of the left have none. Nor I suspect does David Cameron. No wonder Griffin is so f*cking happy.

[T_i_B]

9. As I've mentioned elsewhere...

What little I did see of Labour in the run-up to the Euro elections was very negative. More bitching and moaning about other parties then extolling their own virtues. In particular some Labour commentators seemed to develop a bit of an obsession with Jury Team and independents. It's very diffucult to support a party who don't seem to have anything positive whatsoever to say about themselves and don't make a case for thier own policies as much as they should.

As to the Lib Dem's, they did have a clear message at the Euro elections, but they are the party of the status quo in Europe, and that's not what I'm looking for at all.

[T_i_B]

7. I've just been browsing the results

and one thing I've noticed is that once you get past the Greens and the BNP the minor parties doing best tend to be the English Democrats, United Kingdom First, and the Christian party/Christian People's Alliance. The first 2 of those are UKIP/BNP type parties and the second is an alliance of the religious right (Christian party) and European style Christian Democrats (Christian People's Alliance).

Socialist Labour did better in the North then the South, as to a lesser extent did No2EU but either way, not the best results for the left. Perhaps left wing parties are having a job getting their support to turn up at the polling station and vote?

One other thing I noticed during the campaign was the numbers of Labour bloggers and commentators who seemed to get their knickers in a twist over Jury Team, Roy Hattersly especially. Jury Team did not do well (which might have something to do with their being totally unsuited to the closed party system in place at Euro elections) and it makes you wonder if Labour have been barking up the wrong tree again.