This specific election will make few hearts beat faster as the whole structure could be designed to create torpor. The allocation of seats is worked out on a complicated system few understand. There is no ability to support or reject individuals as the party lists are set centrally. The regions are vast – the South West includes Gibraltar – leaving little link between voter and member. Those elected then serve in a peripatetic parliament at vast cost and have limited clear cut power. Even ardent supporters of the European parliament call it a ‘pan-European soapbox’ which at a cost of £1.16billion per annum is a rather gilded soapbox

 

Yet this election counts for two reasons. First it is a nationwide election providing an opportunity for judgement to be passed on the current government. The words ‘mene, mene, tekel, upharsin’ come to mind – ‘you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting’ is a fair appraisal of Gordon Brown’s stewardship. Assuming Labour is below 20% it would vindicate David Cameron’s call for a general election and perhaps this exhausted government could be put out of its misery. There is no constitutional requirement for this but the disquiet about politicians’ behaviour makes a new mandate desirable. Representative democracy is the best form of government yet developed but throughout history the motives of some of the participants have been questioned. Occasionally this becomes the overwhelming concern of the electors and when it does the solution is to have an election which cleans the system.

 

Second, it is a chance to finish the business of the Lisbon Treaty. Labour and the Liberal Democrats both promised a referendum on the almost identical Constitution which they conveniently dropped once they were safely through the 2005 election. This is typical of the way pro-Europeans have tried to lull us unto a federal super-state. It is this type of behaviour that makes voters feel that politicians cannot be trusted. Perhaps this current crisis will encourage all of us not to over promise and to deliver on what we do promise. The Conservatives continue to call for a referendum and this poll may be used as one. Every vote for the Conservatives, among others, is one against the Lisbon Treaty and it will be interesting to discover, when the votes are counted on Sunday, how many voters want to see the further integration of Europe. A strong anti-Lisbon vote will make it easier for Euro Sceptics to continue the campaign against this treaty being foist upon us.

 

The usual form is to say that these elections concern the functioning of policy making at the European level and to gas on about how we can make our voice heard in the corridors of power. This time it is different and most people will not vote on such a basis. It is a referendum on the government and on Lisbon. A strong Conservative vote uncluttered by fringe parties could provide the impetus for a general election and a better government for our country.