EP elections 2014 - Results Thread

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More than one person has asked me recently if Kilroy was standing.

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Worst Tory result in history? Like... since the 1670s?

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Anyone care to explain the hilarious Gibraltar result?

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Imagine Nigel Farage and Dan Hannan being your representative.

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The Tory right making hints that they want some kind of Tory-UKIP pact are the same people who were most against AV. Funny.

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True, but if was thinking more in terms of his 'legacy' and how he'll be viewed in the future.

Why should anyone care about that?

Oh trust me, I don't care about it. But it must be gutting for him. At the risk of sounding a little sentimental, I think that, too often, a lot of people simply take the view that politicians are a bunch of soulless automatons who don't believe a word of what they say and are only in politics for their own self-aggrandisement. To be fair, that's probably true in a lot of cases. But I think that we should remember that politicians do have dreams (rather like Mr. Banks in 'Mary Poppins'), and crushing for them to see them fade and die. To take the Mary Poppins analogy further, Nick Clegg has, by and large (at least in positive terms) failed to carve his niche in the edifice of time, instead he's been brought to quite literal wrack and ruin. I for one don't see why one shouldn't be able to feel pity for anybody who ends up in a situation like that, even if one doesn't particularly like them.

He made his own bed...

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The Swedish Prime Minister Reinfeldt will not support Juncker.

That's.  Any given reason?

It was reported in the news that Cameron could conviince him to join him and Orban.

Cameron's working with Victor Orban? Jesus wept.

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Who else thinks that for all the bluster of 'getting the message', not all that much will change?

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Elections are supposed to have a veneer of responsibility attached to them

Yes, but a European Election is not a real election but an electoral type event.

Because the election results don't matter?

Because very few people take them seriously, or even know the issues they're voting on.

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Grillo has applied to join the Greens (something I predicted awhile ago)
http://euobserver.com/tickers/124489

LOL

He really is a comedian.

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the militancy.

Technically the correct word would be 'activists', but I always love this particular mistranslation into English.

I'm afraid I was deceived by a false friend (indeed, 'militancia' and 'miltancy' are not exactly the same thing). I guess 'membership' is correct too. Anyway, the PSOE 'activists' elected a new leader called Pedro Sánchez Castejón (42), who defeated Eduardo Madina (38) and other candidate from the left faction . He's economist, skillful in political marketing and has been an unknown backbencher to date. It's possible that he's a man of the Andalusia premier, Susana Díaz. He received huge support in that region and also other regional leaders backed his candidacy. Sánchez claims that his models are Felipe González and Matteo Renzi.    

Definitely OT, but tell me about this Podemos. Are they a bit like Syriza? What effect are they having on the PSOE and the PP?