The European Parliament is an increasingly powerful institution from which a huge share of our laws and regulations derive – so why do some politicians seem to regard it as expensive training wheels?
Voters who missed her on her super-stealth canvass at least knew what she looked like thanks to posters and videos that evoked previous outings as a champion jockey, celebrity dancer and coach. Photograph: Conor McKeown/PA Wirecampaign though voters who missed her on her super-stealth canvass at least knew what she looked like thanks to posters and videos that evoked previous outings as a champion jockey, celebrity dancer and coach. Unlike, a 76-year-old Greek butcher from Alexandroupoli.
Tóibín’s plan by contrast was to give it a few months then hand the Brussels job to his sister, doubling the number of elected party members at a stroke. There was nothing cynical about it, he said, since voters had been told upfront about the plan. Councillor Emer Tóibín could have run for the Brussels seat in her own right of course. It would have upheld at least the spirit of the ballot. Either way, the Tóibíns would have done nothing wrong.
The overarching problem is the casual treatment of the European Parliament and what it represents. In the words of Prof Gary Murphy, the big Irish parties think about European elections as sending a very small pool to a very big parliament where the new members can try to concentrate on an area of particular interest to them and no harm can be done. And if they don’t get elected there might be another potential run out for a Dáil seat.
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