Potential benefactors of the MP Expenses Row

Yesterday, three members of the House of Commons (Christopher Fraser, Julie Kirkbride and Margaret Moran) announced that they will not stand for re-election (to be no later than June 2010 under current law.) Today, two more MPs are under fire for their expenses: Bill Cash, a Conservative MP whose £15k claims to rent his daughter's flat when he owns a house closer to Westminster came under fire in today's Telegraph, and Elliot Morley, a Labour MP and one-time minister who is now the 13th casualty of the past month's reports.

These scandals, concerning excesses of a Parliament that can serve anywhere from a few months to five years, then get a severance check for not running for re-election, are taking the forefront of next week's local and European elections. Instead of questions regarding the Lisbon treaty (and Gordon Brown's decision to enact it through Parliament without a public referendum promised by his predecessor Tony Blair) and other pan-European issues, much attention are focused on the public disgust of MP expense excesses. With this albatross potentially weighing down the Labour and Conservative parties, the Liberal Democrats are best able to capitalize, given their current status in the House of Commons as Party #3 and leader Nick Clegg being a vocal proponent of sweeping reforms that others have pitched in the past century. But with the LibDems an established Westminster party (created as a result of the merger of the Liberal and Social Democratic parties in 1988), parties who haven't had much success in Parliamentary elections are vying to gain traction in the UK hope to make a gain next week and make a statement.

(Speaking of statements, all party election broadcasts aired on the BBC are on their Web site. No barrage of sugar-coated 30-second ads here.)

First off is the party that has third-highest representation in the UK's delegation to Strasbourg, the UK Independence Party. Their main goal: keep Strasbourg & Brussels' policy-making out of the UK. They currently have 12 MEPs, and are looking to gain more to establish clout for an entrance into Westminster's elected ranks by next year. While they are third overall, several of their members are former Conservative supporters who turned from the Tories when the UK under John Major signed onto the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, thus establishing the European Union. UKIP put the blame on the EU when it comes to the general decline of UK's economic power, citing reasons nearly identical to what immigration critics and workers unions in the US use for similar problems: porous borders, foreign influence on domestic law & economic policy, among others.

Second is a "party" that sees the expenses row as icing on the cake: Jury Team. Jury Team is set up as a common brand name for independent candidates, and their candidates were selected by use of text messages and other new-age technologies. Jury Team seek to play off the general malaise of the electorate toward the established parties. They have no manifesto outside of fundamental changes to the operation of both Westminster & Strasbourg: term limits, fixed election dates, elimination of party whips, and petition-sparked recall votes and referenda.

Third is a party both UKIP and mainstream parties have sought to keep at bay, the British National Party. Their party rules forbid the admission of non-whites to their party, and their ultra-nationalist policies run akin to the Fascist parties that gained traction in the 1920s and 1930s. In spite of this, they received five percent of the vote in the 2004 European elections, but no seats, and they have been picking up seats on several local councils. Their member base can show greater growth should economic conditions worsen and "Middle Britain" (which is positioned relatively similar to the fabled Missouri bellwether) stay away from the polls, displeased with the three major parties and not interested or aware of the minor parties. This fear during the Great Depression, heightened by the collapse of a Labour minority government in the summer of 1931, resulted in the creation of a series of national coalition governments that lasted until the end of World War II.

Fourth is another Euro-centred party aiming to increase citizen participation in European affairs, Libertas.eu. While they have several branches in other countries that aim to counter the Lisbon Treaty, in the UK its incarnation is Euro-sceptic.

Fifth is a party currently with two MEPs who are a global fixture: the Greens. Their agenda is similar to Green parties across the globe: pro-environment, responsible labelling, pro-civil liberties, etc. etc.

And then you have your really small parties that hope to heck to get at least one percent of the vote: Christian Party, Socialists, Animals Count, etc. etc. It's usually when things go haywire and the wheels come off of the establishment that minor, fringe, and newer parties make their way into the system. A few of these names might find themselves on the world's news tickers six nights from now.