.........who I should vote for?

[Romeo Whisky]

OK, I am in Scotland , so no local elections: just a Scotland wide PR vote returning 6 MEPs. So which of the political parties in the Scottish ward will do the most to promote sustainable transport and achieve a difference through their unstinting hard work at the European Parliament? I need to make my mind up fairly quick. All help much appreciated.

Thanks
R

ps, not a very young man, and not missed an election or referendum yet, so abstaining will not be considered an option.

[piedwagtail91]

it's our county elections, as far as i know only the three bandit parties have someone standing. i'm very tempted to vote for S. Noutintrough of the help yourself to it party!

[Brian G]

I'm also in Scotland and like yourself never miss a vote, based, I think, on a lifelong belief in the democratic way, a belief which is increasingly beset by cynicism, apathy and sheer bl**dy scunnerdness at the whole process.

I can't offer advice on which particular nest-featherer to vote for, but I urge you to cast your vote anyway, in the hope that whoever is returned at least has more than an embarrassingly tiny percentage of the potential vote.

Brian

[pal]

This is a handy tool: matches your views on various key issues (including transport policy) with those of the euro-candidates standing in your constituency:
http://www.votematch.co.uk/europe/

[Romeo Whisky]

I was quite sceptical when you suggest vote match, but having gone through it and noting that it allows you to give weight to some issues and remove weight from others I became less sceptical, and it did in fact roughly reflect the order I would have placed the parties. Anyway, my vote is now cast. Vote match only compares your views to the parties, and cannot predict how competant or corrupt the candidate will be. Fingers crossed! HOpe everyone else gets out there and votes (if nothing else to stop the total nutters getting in).

[glueman]

If there's a Green locally I'd be very tempted. Better an ineffectual bleeding-heart in jeans and T-shirt than a shark in a suit - but I'll probably vote Labour as usual.

[Si]

I was quite sceptical when you suggest vote match, but having gone through it and noting that it allows you to give weight to some issues and remove weight from others I became less sceptical, and it did in fact roughly reflect the order I would have placed the parties.

But it gets to choose which issues that it asks questions about so it has plenty of opportunity to move focus away from issues that might make you violently disagree with a specific party's views. I'm not saying that it does do this, but such, apparently impartial, tools could easily be used to sway votes - at least with the newspapers we know that they are all lying.

[pq]

The Green party, not suprisingly have very good transport policies.

The Lib Dems do too, but I'd be very surprised if they didn't abandon them if they came to power. The Greens on the other hand would, I think, keep plugging away - and the Green MEPs we have now have often been a voice of reason in some otherwise pretty bonkers debates not just around transport.

[Si]

The problem with the greens is that they are widely perceived as a one-trick pony. They might speak with authority on environmental issues but many (most?) people have little idea of their policies in other areas, or trust that they would have any competence in other areas. Until they get get around this I don't think they've much of a chance, especially as the environment wanes in popularity and the economy grows. Of course, many people seem to just accept the fact that being a candidate for one of the big three automatically means that you are an expert on a multiplicity of areas, whereas it's really often the case that members of these parties don't have any more or less pre-existing expertise in running a country than the minority parties, although their popularities in parliament might mean that there is long standing folk-knowledge of how to combat the civil service.

[thirdcrank]

Vote for Nobody. Electoral slogan "Nobody keeps electoral promises."

[Mick F]

"None of the above."

I believe people should vote, but most of the time, the candidates are useless!

I wonder what would happen if there was a high turnout, and everyone voted for "None of the above."

[Hemipode]

I recall a punk genre slogan from the 70's or early 80's
'Don't vote - it only encourages them'

Mick F wrote:

I wonder what would happen if there was a high turnout, and everyone voted for "None of the above."

I think that they are counted as 'Spoiled Votes'
It seems that in light of recent events it's the politicians who have been spoiling themselves !

[thirdcrank]

In more normal times, if anybody suggests the candidates are all rubbish, the self-serving answer is "You can always stand yourself if you think you could do better." Of course, it is very difficult to be elected as an independent and even more difficult to make an impact if you are elected. In the present climate, when any well-respected person with a bit of a profile might have an excellent chance of being elected, all the insiders - Baron Roy Hattersley being one - are decrying the idea at every opportunity. These people are in a white funk.

[rbrian]

The problem with the greens is that they are widely perceived as a one-trick pony. They might speak with authority on environmental issues but many (most?) people have little idea of their policies in other areas, or trust that they would have any competence in other areas. Until they get get around this I don't think they've much of a chance, especially as the environment wanes in popularity and the economy grows. Of course, many people seem to just accept the fact that being a candidate for one of the big three automatically means that you are an expert on a multiplicity of areas, whereas it's really often the case that members of these parties don't have any more or less pre-existing expertise in running a country than the minority parties, although their popularities in parliament might mean that there is long standing folk-knowledge of how to combat the civil service.

It isn't that difficult to find out some more about their policies, which I think are much more sensible than most of the other parties. That vote matching tool was surprisingly effective, and ordered the parties exactly right for me, with Green at the top and UKIP at the bottom.

[eileithyia]

The Green party, not suprisingly have very good transport policies.

The Lib Dems do too, but I'd be very surprised if they didn't abandon them if they came to power. The Greens on the other hand would, I think, keep plugging away - and the Green MEPs we have now have often been a voice of reason in some otherwise pretty bonkers debates not just around transport.

Hmmmm like the ancient old fashioned rear opening bus (you know the type from on the buses that had conductors) being used as a local green party promotion. Hardly the greenest of transport I would think. Dirty old diesel engine with very poor mpg.