Travels of a Fish Nut

In a few weeks’ time voters around the UK will go to the polls to vote for the MEPs they wish to represent them in the European Parliament for the next 5 years. Despite the highly publicised debates between Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg , voters still seem unclear exactly what they’re voting for. A poll taken a couple of weeks after the second debate showed a level of apathy among voters that hasn’t been seen since the Police and Crime Commissioner elections . Only 16% knew when the elections are being held, and only 7% could name any of their MEPs or even knew how many MEPs the UK currently has. I can’t criticise because I didn’t know any better so I thought it about time I educate myself and maybe do my part to help improve these figures by explaining a bit about the European Parliament and the voting process.

UKIP are a strange beast. They seem to court scandal, whether it’s over expenses , claims of sexism and racism , or renouncing their own manifesto and even their own members . Yet despite all this they are on a roll, having regularly trounced the LibDems in polls for almost a year. In the recent debates over the place of the UK in the European Union the consensus was that Farage won , despite (or maybe because) it seemed to be more about the personalities of the two debaters than any arguments they presented.