Off Topic UK / EU Future

I have voted in the UK, but today I received my French voting card so could double vote. It is illegal, so should I break the law and place a vote for a neighbour who hasn't received her papers?

 

They cannot vote, their papers are lost in Holland

 

You really do show your ignorance of the EU. and how it works at every step SH. Any ex pat who is officially resident in another EU country receives voting papers where they live, and can vote there - this applies both in European and in local elections. Frenchie has voting rights in France for these elections, and I have voting rights for all German elections by virtue of naturalization. This is one and the same election, whether a person votes in the UK. or in France, and all that matters is the resulting size of voting blocks in the EU. parliament - it doesn't matter to me whether a German Green is sitting there or an English one. If the authorities in the UK have sent ex pat voting papers to Holland mistaking it for France, then their knowledge of Europe is about on the same level as yours.

 

The problem with the papers that have not arrived is that they were sent using a private company via Holland. Mine were delivered via Royal Mail, and from what I see most people who received them in time did get them via Royal Mail. I do get mail from the UK via this private company and it always takes longer to get here because it comes via Holland, Germany, Belgium or any other country this side of the Channel. This fact is well known, and it is not right that local councils who administer voting should put saving a penny or two in front of making sure that people can exercise their democratic rights.

 

Is this the infamous 'Global Logistics Services' Frenchie ? If so it is the best way of ensuring that your post arrives in a ditch somewhere. Many ex pats here in Germany ordered documents from England, such as certified birth certificates, divorce papers etc. which the Royal Mail subcontracted to this firm - with less than satisfactory results. The fact is that the Royal Mail should be working with their equivalent firms in Europe - in this case the Deutsche Post - the fact that they are subcontracting this to private firms which use the cheapest labour possible, under the worst working conditions imaginable, is disgracefull.

 

And we thought you valued democracy.. Ah only when it goes your way...

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Thankfully Frenchie has put you right on the papers silly boy.

 

What I pointed out was the folly of using a private service just to save a couple of pence. Remind you of a certain Grayling who was going to save money by putting the prisons and probation service into private hands, but it finished up costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds. La Poste and Royal Mail have a joint agreement to deal with each others mail as if it were their own. You get what you pay for, and for less money, less service in this case.

 

How about for once actually debating rather than simply using these throw away one liners ? I am well aware of what the situation is - the Royal Mail chose to sub contract to a shabby private sub contractor which promptly lost the papers. Presumably in the Netherlands because this is where Global Logistics Services is based. As in so many spheres the one firm sub contracts to another, and then another and so on, but disclaims all responsibility afterwards. At the end of the chain the post is delivered (if at all) by an Albanian earning slave wages. Under new EU laws the initial firm would be responsible for all breaches in working conditions all the way down the line, including those made by sub contractors. However - that is not what I was talking about - all ex pats in France have the right to vote there, which is just as effective as doing it in the UK.

 

I was simply stating a fact that many expats in France will not able to vote because they have not received the papers. The Brexit Party may benefit but there are many closet expat Breiteers.

 

You were not stating a fact.. You were celebrating the fact.. Quite different meaning

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In order to prevent future UK Brexiter MEPs making a nuisance of themselves in Brussels, would it not be a good idea for the EU Parliament to introduce a requirement for new MEPs to take an oath of allegiance before taking up their seats. This is done in many countries, including the USA and the UK. We can only presume that if anyone is elected to a parliament that they have a commitment/loyalty to it, and are not there solely to disrupt it, waste time, and simply knock up expenses. Sending Brexit Party MEPs to Brussels can only drag the image of Britain down to even lower levels than it is already.

 

The Brexit party will be joined by a whole host of new eurosceptic groups with a radical agenda to change the present federalist one, expect fireworks. These groups are entitled to their opinions as all democratically elected.

 

When the British MEPs go to Brussels they will separate and go into blocks - Labour will go to the Social Democratic group along with the SPD, and so on. The Greens will all sit together as a block (with a couple of exceptions). The Greens are, by far, the most cohesive group there. Your whole host of eurosceptic groups are a motley collection - a coalition of losers with no real unifying ideas. Your friends the Front National and the AfD are Eurosceptic but they do not have leaving the EU as their goal - they just want to change it. The other factor is that we do not know how long Britain will be there for, and nobody is going to go into partnership with, and make plans with, a group which may well only be there for 6 months. They are joining a Parliament which they would like to see destroyed, and that is a different starting point from the other Eurosceptic parties who are on the path of reform from within (albeit a highly undesirable reform). Your friends in the Brexit party will warm seats in Brussels (or more likely in wine bars) simply embarassing everyone.

 

At last a Brexit dividend. IDS thinks Trump is likely to pull his visit. Should save quite a lot on the police budget.

 

The far right groups are forming a formidable new block, you are underestimating their likely influence in the new parliament. There is much dissatisfaction with the EU in its present form.

 

At the moment the Brexit MEP's are sat together with the MEPs from the Five Star Movement with one there from the AfD - called the 'Europe of freedom and direct democracy' Party - altogether they have 42 MEPs, out of a total of over 700. The French Front National sit together with Lega Nord in a completely different block (Europe of Nations and Freedom) so obviously there are big disagreements between them - like the rats are falling out. Maybe Marine le Pen is too left wing for Farage. Altogether they are about as insignificant as you would say the Greens are in the UK.

 

You really would expect Brexiteers, especially if they had been a Minister in the Brexit department to know something. Steve Baker is expecting to know how badly the results have gone for his party, and expects the press to give him a flavour of them on Friday. Sorry, but exit polls are not allowed, and counting does not start until Sunday. If I know that, why doesn't he?

 

You really are showing your true colours here SH. According to you the AfD are full of neo Nazis yet your hero Farage sits in the same block with them in the EU Parliament.

 

Just hoping that Britain sticks to that ruling Frenchie.