News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on George Orwell would have voted to leave the European Union. Parent comment

Re:George Orwell would have voted to leave the European Union by teamonkey on Saturday July 16, 2016 @06:19AM (#12105862)
In the UK there is virtually no coverage of the European parliament. It's not televised on any channel, you don't hear coverage on the radio or read it in the papers like the UK parliament. People don't know who their who their elected representative is. It's really no surprise that people think they have no representation, despite the UK having significant influence.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:George Orwell would have voted to leave the European Union by misnome on Saturday July 16, 2016 @06:41AM (#12105908)
Well, when asked to vote for representation "The People" elect Nigel Farage who campaigns purely on a platform of "I will do nothing except vote against everything", which I believe his record supports.

It's voting for non-representation.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:George Orwell would have voted to leave the European Union by teamonkey on Saturday July 16, 2016 @03:07PM (#12107497)
Well yes, but I don't think people even realise that there are actually representatives from the UK there who don't do nothing.

There was a Scottish MEP who made an impassioned speech in contrast to Farage's nonsense. a) I only saw it due to it showing up in my relatively pro-EU Facebook echo chamber; b) I'd never heard of him before.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:George Orwell would have voted to leave the European Union by SixSigma on Saturday July 16, 2016 @07:33AM (#12106010)
As Daniel Hannan [1] (Conservative MEP for 17 years) says : "Uniquely, we have managed to create a system that is anti-democratic - you only get to go there when you have lost an election. Only when, like: Chris Patten, Neil Kinnock, and Jean-Claude Junkers, you have been expressly rejected by voters are you invited to sit as an MEP" [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hannan

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJcuKfcxo9w#t=6m50s

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:George Orwell would have voted to leave the European Union by tormeh on Saturday July 16, 2016 @08:41AM (#12106158)
Which is because you can always have more power by becoming a leader of a member state than a leader of some part of the EU machine. Becoming a MEP or commissioner/MEP is not exactly a move towards power. Therefore it's usually a path taken by those whose time in the national spotlight have passed or those who have had to adjust their ambitions.

It's not anti-democratic that the players for the lower-rang positions are of lower rang.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:George Orwell would have voted to leave the European Union by tonyedgecombe on Saturday July 16, 2016 @06:44AM (#12105914)
There is plenty of coverage, it's nearly all negative rather than factual though.

My biggest worry now is we are likely to go through a difficult period in the UK and all those politicians and journalists that told us our problems are the fault of those foreigners will continue to do so.

[ Parent | on HN ]