Quote:
Originally Posted by rustymotor
Interesting post bendrick, Regarding the younger vote that was my opinion and don't believe I used the term robbed.
Yes, the EU has what's commonly known as a democratic deficit however, it happens to be more democratic than our own national parliament and the house of commons with a first past the post system.
We also have the unelected house of lords and given the unrepresentative house of commons in terms of political parties to votes one might come to the conclusion that the EU with it's council of ministers is more democratic than our own system.
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I'm sorry didn't intend to give the impression that you used the term robbed.
I was speaking/writing rhetorically in regards to the whiners who continue to trot out the expression 'Youngsters robbed of their future' on every single political debate show, rather than referring to yourself.
Given my experience working in the European parliament in Briussels for an MEP I'm afraid that we'll have to agree to disagree on the point of democracy.
The first past the post system used to elect the government in the UK is badly flawed, however British voters do actually have a vote.
The EU commission and presidents are not elected by the people and can never be voted out. Yet it is they and their staff who devise and propose all the legislation that affects our lives here.
The European parliament which is the only part of the EU whose representatives are elected by the people does not propose any legislation whatsoever and can not alter the legislation put forward to them, only vote on ammendments to what is put before them by the unelected.
The EU parliament can only put forward changes or amendments which are routinely disregarded.
One perfect example of the lack of any point to the MEPs and their chamber is the motion put forward now on two seperate occasions to stop the ludicrous moving the entire parliament to Strasbourg every month, moving MEPs, staff their boxes and boxes of documents etc etc just to please the French.
The motion to end this mega expensive madness has twice been heavily voted through by MEPs and just ignored each time by the commission.
The elections for the presidents of the various bodies and commission are one candidate Stalinesque type votes, endorsements of European nobodies who have been chosen behind the scenes before being put forward as the only candidate.
Which is why we end up with the likes of ex Maoist, Prodi and current Luxembourg nonentity Juncker running the show
It may well be your idea of democracy but I'm afraid I'm struggling to recognise any such resemblence of the description of what I understand democracy to be with what I witnessed in Brussels on a daily basis.
As regards the House of Lords it is a complete and utter discgrace and should be scrapped tomorrow, however I fail to see any difference in it's undemocratic concept and that of the European Union.