A kick in the arse for British Politics?

As voters went to the polls on the 4th of June to vote to elect Britain's MEPs (Members of European Parliament) the Labour party was seriously down on it's luck. With support for Gordon Brown dwindling, and the MPs expenses scandal rocking the government, it didn't look like a comfortable time for the government to be going into the European Elections. Can't say I'm surprised at what was about to happen next.

First off, a bit about MEPs, they are elected at local level, so for example, my town, Romford, may have their seat for an MEP up for grabs, so everyone in Romford takes to the polls to vote, whichever political party gets the highest number of votes, wins the seat. Easy, no? There was 72 seats up for election, so it was going to be one hell of a contest.

But what do MEPs actually do? They are the only body of the EU elected by the people that have any decision in any European legislation that the EU is trying to pass, this can include new laws, which is why I consider this to be just as important as any other election.

As people took to the polls this time around, there was a record number of political parties standing in the British Elections, with Labour, The Conservatives, The Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party being the front runners in this race, lets face it, no one really expected any other party to win 3 seats at most apart from maybe the Greens.

Going into the election, the seat count stood at this:

Conservatives: 25 (It should be noted that The Conservatives are not in Power in Britain at this time.)
Labour: 18
UKIP: 12
Lib Dems: 10
Green: 2
Scottish National Party: 2
Plaid Cymru: 1 (A the Welsh version of Scottish National Party.)

As they went into the polls, there would be quite a shake up of these seats, and I'm sure it must've been a tense night for Gordon Brown, as it was going to be near impossible for him and Labour to pull of an amazing stunt and even gain a seat.

As the results rolled around in the early hours of the 5th of June, Gordon Brown must've been wanting to end it all, as Labour took a real battering in the polls.

First off, they have been pretty dominante in Wales since 1918, this ended, with Labour winning only 1 of 4 seats on offer in Wales. Secondly, they have never lost the majority of the votes in Scotland in a UK wide election, this ended, with the Scottish National Party getting 29% of the Scottish votes, and Labour slumping down to 21%. They also took a battering in other parts of the country, in the South of England, they were smashed into 5th place by the Green party, a shock I'm sure no one predicted, but, it gets worse for Labour, as in Cornwall they came off even worse, and got destroyed into 6th place, by the Cornish nationalists, something that I would never even bet £1 on happening. All in all, they lost a few seats and it was a terrible night for Labour.

For the other parties, the night wasn't so bad, with the Conservatives and Lib Dems gaining a seat. The Lib Dems leader, Nick Clegg said that the result was a good platform to build for the next General Election. The UKIP, also won a seat, bringing them into joint 2nd place with Labour on overall seats, something I would also not have expected to see. The Green party also increased their percentage of votes (Although failed to gain a seat.) as did many of the smallest parties.

The biggest gainer here, is the BNP, a party that has been called "Racist", "Facist" and even "Nazis", among other parties, they are constantly bombarded by negative comments, and voting for the BNP, is like the ultimate protest against the government. They made gained two seats from Labour, and party leader. Conservative Leader David Cameron called the result "Sickening". BNP Leader Nick Griffin denies his party is racist, and he said this to on air on BBC Radio 4; "There's a huge amount of racism in this country, overwhelmingly it is directed towards the indigenous British majority, which is one reason we've done so well in these elections." He said the "ruling elite" had made the "indigenous majority ... second-class citizens in every possible sphere".

In the Northern Ireland vote, nothing changed, with Sinn Féin, Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Conservatives and Unionists all keeping the one seat they had previously.

With all of this, the UK's representation at European Parliament now stands at:

Conservatives: 26 +1
UKIP: 13 +1
Labour: 13 -5
Lib Dems: 11 +1
Green Party: 2 No Change
Scottish National Party: 2 No Change
British National Party: 2 +2
Plaid Cymru: 1 No Change

With all of this, the pressure is on for Gordon Brown, as this is clearly a message from the British people about what they think about British Politics. It should be interesting to watch what happens from now to the General Election.