The "Far Right" in France......

[k4blades]

Is it a sign of things to come here in the UK?

They got 20% of the vote, something the Lib Dems can only dream of at the moment. They've done it by ditching some of their more "nasty" attitudes and focused on the Euro/ EU and immigration. There policies on these issues were very much like those of the Socialist Party so hardly an extreme view, in fact, views of probably the majority of French people.
Very much like this country where main stream parties refuse to discuss or acknowledge these issues though many of the electorate think they are important and have very different views to the political classes.
And that's why in recent times we have seen support for Labour and the Tories decrease, though the "extreme" parties are not very electable at the moment. Of course, the other difference is that in the UK, the political system is rigged so that the only parties that could possibly win a general election are Lab / Tory, whatever the public might want.   

[Pete]

Largely agree. But once in power things can change...

[Big Dave]

Can change....? Once in power these things do change! Politicians will do and say anything for votes pre-election, conveniently forgetting they ever did or said it afterwards. Do you really think the far right in France have suddenly become the 'nice' party?

[k4blades]

I don't know enough about French politics to answer that but the point is that its a reflection of whats happening across Europe.

I heard yesterday that the Dutch parliament has "collapsed in chaos", the Italians have an election coming up and the Bureaucrat that was put in is struggling to cut half of what he said he would, Greece still has massive unrest, Spain has massive unemployment and unrest, and struggling financially.
But mainstream politicians hang on to their silly idea that the EU will save the day...no it won't..it will all go t1ts up as the people across Europe get fed up of being at the sharp end of failed idealistic dreams that were never going to work in the first place.
While the politicians have been feeding their egos with the dreams of global wealth and power, they forgot about the common man, his job and his family. Slowly but surely, the common man will fight back. We in the UK though, as always, will be way behind what happens in Europe.

[Pete]

Totally agree

[Big Dave]

Remember the referendum on our entry to the EEC? I voted against.

So never expect me to think anything good about the EU...

[Fly]

Just for the record Dave, all this means jack sh** to me.
So if I join in on a political debate, ignore me, I probably don't know what I'm on about 

[Slacker]

Remember the referendum on our entry to the EEC? I voted against.

So never expect me to think anything good about the EU...

Technically not a vote about entry as it was a couple of years in.

[Big Dave]

Technically not a vote about entry as it was a couple of years in.

Quite right, it was on continued membership of the EEC - I've slept a lot since then....