(no subject)

[shapinglight]

Still on the subject of the European elections, but on a lighter note - of course elections always bring out their share of -shall we say, eccentrics?

The most amusing IMO was The Roman Party. Ave!, the creation of Jean-Louis Pascual, of French Basque origin, now working as a bus driver in Reading. Apparently, he's been standing under that party banner in every election since 2006, and his platform consists of When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do (ie. integrate with the locals), and that's about it. I suppose his transport policy could possibly be, All Roads Lead to Rome?

Anyway, he polled over 5000 votes in the Euro elections, so it seems at least some people in the UK have hung on to their sense of humour.

That Wikipedia entry is slated for deletion, by the way, so look quickly if you're going to look at all.

Comments

[quinara]

You probably did, but did you see this?? The video especially made me rather happy.

And re the Romans - hee!

[shapinglight]

Re: that video - yes, great stuff. Heartening to see how many people turned up to confront Griffin - and amusing that, given he has ties with all those nasty Russian neo-Nazis, they heard about his speech from Russian TV. And he can't complain. Perfectly 'respectable' politicians get foodstuff thrown at them all the time.

Hopefully, it'll be a custard pie next time.

[quinara]

Ooh yes...

I love that he has all that ridiculous 'security' and can still be forced to retreat. Intimidation - not going to fly in Britain.

[shapinglight]

And his protests afterwards -disgraceful, he called it. Doesn't he realise this is how we treat our politicians, of whatever stripe?

[quinara]

Course he does - he just thinks we're all too thick to recognise spin when we see it. (I cannot get over the way the git thinks he can talk like he's in Animal Farm and expect people to take him seriously.)

[shapinglight]

(I cannot get over the way the git thinks he can talk like he's in Animal Farm and expect people to take him seriously.)

Plus all the bollocks he spouts. He's always wittering on about the Black Police Association as a reason why he's allowed to keep black people out of the BNP, when in fact he could perfectly well join the Black Police Association if he wanted. That is, if he were a police association of some sort.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

You do him an injustice. He also stands for public works of road and bridge building (probably hypocausts and fish pickle too, if we could only know it). Strange hobby, but at least original!

[shapinglight]

Oops, sorry! Maybe the public works and road and bridge building come under the transport portfolio - ie. all roads lead to Rome?

[ex_peasant441]

Oh I saw that on the ballot and wondered who he was! Every other party had a full slate and he was just this lone chap with the rather splendid little Roman helmet as his symbol. If I had been doing the protest vote thing I would definitely have gone for him.

Typical bloody Wikipedia - more concerned about complying with their stupid draconian rules for admissibility than stopping to think whether or not the information they have might be of use and interest to people trying to find out about something. And they take up far more storage space arguing about what should be deleted than keeping the article in the first place.

[shapinglight]

I think he might well have got my protest vote too, if I lived in Reading.

And is the article gone, then? I haven't been back to check.

[ex_peasant441]

He was Euro candidate for the whole SE, not just Reading. Reading is miles from us and he was definitely on my ballot paper.

It's not gone yet, but there are the usual dismissive 'delete' comments on the deletion discussion page from the 'Wikipedians' (which means experienced account holders, some of whom seem to have it as their hobby to try to get as many articles as possible deleted). They always make me grind my teeth.

[shapinglight]

I've never really gone too deeply in Wiki land. Looks a bit scary to me.

[ex_peasant441]

My experience of Wikipedia is that it is a wonderful thing that is revolutionising access to and the ownership of knowledge... and its much more enjoyable if you play quietly in your own corner and have nothing to do with anyone else.

[shapinglight]

Like most things, then?

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

I love candidates like that. We had a guy running for President once whose entire platform was a promise to get rid of electric hand driers in public restrooms. Seems like an unreasonable hatred of a product you can avoid using by carrying some paper towels, but you have to admire the effort it took him to get on the ballot in several states.

[shapinglight]

Hee! Did he get many votes?