Chiswickite - formerly The Croydonian

Other grey beards will recall that the Conservative Party's leader used to be elected purely by its MPs, and those boys and girls in blue were often dubbed 'the most sophisticated' etc etc. Wonks might also recall that there were spoilt votes when Thatcher was challenged, with some enthusiasts signing their ballots, and thus invalidating their votes. I am not making this up.

Anyway, MEPs seem to find exercising the franchise a bit of a struggle:

So, 17 out of 701 MEPs - a less than negligible 2.4% - did not know how to vote.

Maybe round two will be better. Maybe parliamentary clerks offered remedial lessons:

Well, progress of sorts, but note how 41 MEPs decided the fleshpots of Brussels were more appealing than doing their parliamentary duty.

Ok, three's the charm:

(I have no idea what has been going on with the font sizes of my screen grabs)

This time they went backwards, with an additional invalid vote, and a further four MEPs having clocked off. Assuming that observer MEPs do not have voting rights, there was a theoretical maximum of 736 eligible to vote, so the final turn out was 89%. Good by the standards of most free electorates, but a long way from giving MEPs a pulpit.

Labels: EU fun and games

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 8:42 am. You can skip to the end and leave a response.