Feel free to chip in if you’re not a Brit, but you probably won’t have much idea of the public mood here at the moment (hint, it isn’t pretty).
I expect it will put politicians in shock.
It’s going to be interesting. 
I’m suspecting it won’t go well if you’re a Labour supporter.
But what I’m really dreading as a sort-of-ex pat is how the BNP is going to do. Any vote those scumbags get is one too many, and I’m afraid they are going to get a lot.
I know this is preachy, but I want to remind people that under the Proportional Representation system we have for the Euro elections, if you don’t vote you are effectively voting BNP. In other words, if you don’t vote (for anyone, Labour, Tory, whoever), you are increasing the proportion of the vote that the BNP gets. If they get a high enough proportion they will get an MEP in your constituency.
This is incorrect. It would be equally accurate (i.e. not accurate at all) to say that if you don’t vote BNP, you are increasing the proportion of the vote that the non-BNP parties get.
To answer the OP, it will be a bad day for the current government, and deservedly so. All the other parties will pick up some votes that are effectively ‘anyone-but-Labour’ votes, but no-one really knows who the principal beneficiaries will be.
That’s my point; if you vote for anyone other than the BNP you increase the proportion of votes the other parties get and make it less likely that the BNP cross the threshold needed to elect a member (? 5%). If you don’t vote you make it more likely that the BNP cross the threshold.
Obviously this applies to any party you don’t want to succeed, but we were talking about the BNP.
I don’t want to be right here so if I have misunderstood something please tell me.
As a fascist and racist, I am now confused. Is it better for me to vote BNP, or not vote at all (which is the same as voting BNP, apparently)? Which would send a stronger signal to the communists and immigrants?
Silly question, even if it is a faux naive one. Obviously the BNP need some people to vote for them to get MEPs. The point I’m making is that other peoples’ apathy and a low turnout will increase the significance of the BNP voting rump so that there is a risk of its percentage share being high enough to cross the threshold required (which apparently varies from seat to seat). If you want to reduce the chance of the BNP representing your constituency then vote for anyone, even UKIP.
This is not the same as a Westminster election where abstentions have little practical effect. In this election abstentions have a huge effect - all small parties (not just the BNP) want people who don’t like them to abstain.
I have just voted. There was no queue at all. I met someone who’d just left, and that was it. Very disappointing.
I voted a week ago as I have a postal ballot. In my area we had a choice of 12 candidates so we have a fair crack at the lefties and the loonies! I had already made my decision on who to vote for but I decided to have a look into the other parties just to see what kind of crazy was out there. There’s plenty of it…
It’s quite worrying that the predicted low turnout means that there’s a good chance the worst of the minorities will pick up seats here. I’m also disappointed at the lack of election material coming through the door too, we’ve had flyers from the main three parties and the BNP but nothing at all from any of the others.
In the South-West, we had a choice of 17 candidates! I voted for UKIP, partly because I would quite like to see Britain withdraw from the EU, and partly beacuse my aunt campaigns for them and is one of their candidates (albeit at number 6 - am I right in thinking these are listed on the ballot paper in the order that they would be elected?). I normally vote Conservative but I think they are too pro-EU at the moment (or at least too apathetic about it to change the status quo). I wouldn’t vote UKIP in a parliamentary election because they have too small a chance of getting in at the moment. I’ll be very interested to see the results.
Mine were listed alphabetically by party name. Either that or the printer is absolutely certain the BNP are going to win. Hmmm…well, that could be true, right?
But within each party’s listing on the ballot paper there is a list of people who will become elected if the party gets enough votes. The higher your party’s share of the vote is, the more people from your list get elected. I think the lists were numbered, which suggests that people are elected in that order.
Well… how did it go?
Voting is still going on and won’t close until 10pm tonight BST. We’ll start to find out the council election results in the following few hours (not all councils or parts of the UK are involved) but the European Parliament election count won’t start until Sunday night, as other parts of the EU vote on Sunday. In Scotland the result won’t be announced until later on Monday; Scotland votes as one constituency and the extreme Presbyterians in the Western Isles won’t allow counting to happen at all on Sunday.
If all goes well, Jethro Q. Walrustitty will be heading to Brussels…
What time is in in Central Awesome? It’s coming up to 5pm here, I’m going to vote (for what it’s worth) on my way home at shortly. I am not expecting to have to queue.
Our local voting venue is in a children’s playcentre, so we get to excercise our democratic rights overseen by pictures of Spongebob Squarepants and the Itsy Bitzy Spider (that’s what it was last time I’ll let you know of any changes).
I don’t think Major Walrustitty (retired) (Mrs) is standing in our area, shame.
12:16 pm. I didn’t realized there was significant turnout for MEP elections.
There probably won’t be, but we won’t know much other than exit polls until Sunday. It’s illegal to publish exit poll results while the polls are open. I don’t know whether it is legal to publish exit poll results in the time between our polls closing and the start of the count on Sunday.
In this particular situation I hate to say I told you so, but I was right: apparently the BNP got fewer votes in NW England than last time but gained their first seat, since the increased number of people abstaining increased their share of the vote. The above sentence is incorrect, ianzin; you can only increase the proportion than non-BNP parties get if you actively vote. The 3m people who didn’t vote in NW England increased the BNP’s share high enough for them to get one of their 2 MEPs.
Another way to look at it is if another 5000 (out of 3m) had voted Green then the BNP would not have got elected.