On Mon, 09 Oct 2017 17:08:45 +0100, Tim Streater
wrote:

In article , Mark
wrote:

On Mon, 09 Oct 2017 16:29:00 +0100, Tim Streater
wrote:

In article , Mark
wrote:

On Mon, 09 Oct 2017 10:36:58 +0100, Tim Streater
wrote:

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an
endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Indeed. The right-wing gutter press are particularly good at this.
They portrayed the EU as demons under the bed, which convinced the
Brexextremists.

The EU is undemocratic, run by the Commission which is an oligarchy.

I don't agree.

You mean we get to elect the commissioners? You mean we can throw them
out?

We elect the MEP, using a proportional system. We don't elect civil
servants in the UK.

If anything, the UK is an oligarchy, with PPCs chosen
by the political parties, not the voters.

Tom Tugendhat was selected to be the Tory candidate via an open primary
in Tonbridge and Malling. But such affairs are not cheap.

But at least in the UK you get to pick someone who will represent where
you live. Unlike most continental systems which seem to use the list
system where the candidates are all selected by the parties. Such
people will always be political insiders since they are free to ignore
the voters entirely.

Many UK MPs are political insiders who ignore the voters. And I had
no say in who the party selected here and who is our MP now.

You'll note also that there are no by-elections for MEPs. If one dies
or resigns, the next one on the party list gets the nod.

No worse than the UK. If an MP dies/resigns a new one is chosen by
the party and usually gets elected "on the nod".