NEXT week sees us given the opportunity to participate in elections to the European Parliament.
Post expenses row, Westminster has not been the place to go looking for large numbers of public servants held in the highest esteem by those wielding wooden pencils in polling station booths.
And with the “Euro madness” headlines ranging from the curve of a banana to the sizzle in a sausage rarely far from the front pages of our newspapers, it’s probably fair to surmise two things about next Thursday’s democratic process.
First, the turnout in this country may not be as impressive as it is in other member states.
Second, British voters may still struggle to accept and understand the working of the enormous machine they are being asked to send people to watch over.
They may also ponder what sort of expenses system members of the European Parliament have at their disposal.
Rightly or wrongly, a chunk of the electorate will assume the gravy train derailed so spectacularly at Westminster may have been running on similar tracks all over Europe.
But, like any election, there are serious issues to be considered.
When an organisation has grown to the vast size of the EU administration, it can be hard to track its decisions back to the men, women and children on the street of its constituent countries.
And, from the perspective of small firms all over Europe (not just in the UK) there must be a fear, even collectively, that they represent too small a constituent part to be heard, acknowledged or even listened to.
The UK’s Federation of Small Businesses is calling on all of the candidates in the European elections to “Think Small First”.
They want them to remember that small businesses have a vital role to play reversing economic meltdown and other issues such as climate change.
The FSB demanded candidates demonstrate how they would help small businesses survive, generate employment and pull us out of recession.
Among other demands made in a pre-European Parliament election statement, the FSB called for a moratorium on legislation – delaying all new employment and business legislation during the recession.
It’s a legitimate call.
The problem may turn out to be that it went completely unheard in Strasbourg and Brussels.
MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando Group
