*** OFFICIAL BREXIT SUNLIT UPLANDS and #MEGA THREAD ***

[CoccoBill]

Incorrect. A member state does not send one MEP to the EU, they send many, and they can come from any internal party. In the case of the UK, we've sent Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, UKIP and probably independents. That's five or six from one member state.

It's 1-n from each member state, yes. No one said each member can have representatives of exactly one of their parties, but on the EU level all of the MEPs, regardless of their political affiliation, are mainly supporting the interests of their own countries, so seeing them as a single party on the EU level is not all that incorrect.

What you're essentially doing here is relegating the nation state to a mere constituency. I don't want to be part of a system that sends someone to represent our interests. I want to be part of a system that is our interests. Policy is under the direct control of those we vote in, not "represented" by those we vote in.

You are aware that when you vote for your district representatives, or your town council, or your school board, there will be competing interests to your own? In all of those cases you send someone to represent your interests. There is no difference whether those competing interests are of other pupils, or a different part of the town, or the neighboring city, or a different EU member state. In effect the situation on all levels is fundamentally the same. What you want is not democracy, it's dictatorship.

Representation is fine when we're talking about an economic bloc for the purpose of trade with other countries. I don't believe we should control European economic policy. It's not fine when it comes to national policy. For that, we don't vote in representatives, we vote in ministers.

I don't have personal control of UK policy either. The point of democracy is accountability, and public control of policy. Without these two factors, democracy is a sham. The EU are not accountable, nor do the public have control of policy.

It's called representative democracy, which is used in practically all nations that call themselves democracies, apart from a couple that are just dictatorships masked as democracies (China et al). The other option is a direct democracy, where citizens would vote directly on each and every decision and no, that is not used anywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_democracy

Not in the same way you influence policy by voting into direct power members of a party into office. MEPs do not form a governing party. MPs do. How can you not see this critical difference?

This'll be my last free civics lesson of the day. The MEPs form transnational Europarties, which are the governing bodies of the European Parliament. Think of the Parliament similar to the Congress in the US, or the House of Commons. Then there is the European Council, consisting of the heads of member states and functions similarly to the Senate or the House of Lords. When you vote in MPs to the House of Commons, they act in a strikingly similar role as the MEPs, as in they influence the Lords just like the MEPs influence the EC.