Voting time!

Is it that time again already? The European Parliamentary Elections are just around the corner, on Thursday 4 June. I don't know about you, but I've had a surprising dearth of information about this election — not a single political pamphlet has swanned its way through my door yet, and I've actually had to go and seek out information about the various parties standing.

For anybody else who's feeling confused: the electoral region is Scotland, (unless you're in some other constituency), and the candidates are broken down by UK party, not by European ones. (i.e. you'd vote for the SNP, not the EFA). Here's a full list of who's standing for election in Scotland.

Currently Scotland has two Labour politicians, two Tories, two SNPs and one LibDem in the European Parliament. The European Parliament has its own curious, confusing and continually-shifting set of super-parties. The current pecking order is:

• The EPP–ED group, a conservative/christian democratic alliance that includes the UK Conservative party.
• The Party of European Socialists, which includes UK Labour.
• The ALDE group, a collection of liberal and democratic parties that includes the various UK Liberal Democratic parties.
• UEN, a national conservative group to which no UK parties are aligned.
• The Greens–EFA group, a loose collection of green and regionalist parties including the various UK Green parties, the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and Mebyon Kernow.
• The EUL–NGL group, a communist/democratic socialist/eco-socialist alliance whose only UK member appears to be Sinn Féin
• The I/D group, a eurosceptic group that includes the UK Independence Party
• Misc

But don't let that confuse you. Vote for who you think best represents you, and if you don't know who that might be, pop along to the various parties' web sites! I'm voting Liberal Democrat, but don't let me sway you; make up your own mind. Go on — democracy's everybody's responsibility.