Tories spared fine after being told off by ICO for election telemarketing Phone calls made on behalf of the Conservatives in the run-up to the UK general election "crossed the line" into unlawful direct marketing – but the party has escaped regulatory action. The Tories hired Welsh-based firm Blue Telecoms to carry out direct marketing and market research calls during the campaign. This is a pretty …
Wrong. It means that no party will try it again. Imagine the kerfuffle if a party was caught out eight days before polling.
In the past, we had silly expenses limits for parliamentary by-elections and silly expenses submissions by political parties, on the basis that I won't challenge you if you don't challenge me. That is more or less over.
The Tory battle bus of student activists in 2015? Owing to the early election, a few court cases were curtailed. It was noted, however, that election agents have to record a realistic expense for imported canvassers. If they turned up at the last general election, it was recorded.
Hmm. The worrying thing is national campaigning, which we think about as billboards and broadcasts. In reality, national campaigning is about personal letters, using personal data left on social media fora. How do we stop the people with the most money from winning elections?
"How do we stop the people with the most money from winning elections?"
By actually fining them, by taking some sodding action.
Even better, all fines for transgressions get re-distributed among the parties that played by the rules.
Even better, all fines for transgressions get re-distributed among the parties that played by the rules.
Does that extend to the fines from electoral fraud? If it did, there would be something of a balance in fines (some members of the Tories seem very given to campaign expenses and marketing fraud, some members of the Labour party put their side streets ahead in voting fraud).
From my memory of the TV program, the company hired by the Tories didn't just cross the line they ran over it with a steam roller! They even lied about who they were calling on behalf of.. among other things.
In my opinion a telling off is nowhere near enough.
BTW. I feel the same if it turns our the Greens, or the Lib Dems or anyone else has done the same thing. Things like this undermine democracy and shouldn't be tolerated.
"Wrong. It means that no party will try it again."
Oh, but they will. We had the AT5000 Autodialer (see The Simpsons) call us courtesy of one of our political shysters. You have NO recourse, it just dials out automatically, all numbers in sequence. Even the bullshit "LIFE HACK: The 11 magical words that will get a telemarketer off the phone" can't possibly make a diffrence because they don't ever listen to your screaming.
"The concerns were not enough to trigger formal enforcement action"
Of course they were! The Tories deliberately broke the rules to target marginal seats, which almost certainly influenced the election result.
The only acceptable enforcement action is to ban the Tories from using any form of communications that involve electricity[*] for the next fifty years. And to be safe, ban all existing members of the party from using electricity-based-communications for 25 years, even if they turn into Kippers.
[*] Social media, e-mail, and telephone (fixed or mobile) obvs, but also (to drive the message home) any use of electricity-based message creation, so no word-processors to prepare leaflets or electrical printers to print them. Obviously they would still be allowed to send the Freepost election communications, it wouldn't be democratic otherwise, but they all have to be hand-written. Some may think this is excessive, but I don't think so...
> What about hand operated duplicators?
> I think that would be okay - but no electronically scanned stencils! Strictly the old alcohol/wax systems that died after about 30 copies!
No, those were Gestetner copiers. The Tories couldn't possibly use a German (sounding) product when there is a traditional British alternative available - namely the John Bull Printing Kit
No, those were Gestetner copiers
I always remember the spirit systems being Roneo / Banda. Gestetner being a more complicated 'tissue paper' with carbon paper and card backing which allowed ink to seep through the minutely perforated paper from an inked drum. But my knowledge is limited through it being some forty years ago and my being a child having fun rather than a print worker.
At college we had some fancy bit of kit which could transfer copy to a metal sheet which I think also went through a Gestetner machine, but I always retained a fondness for multi-colour spirit printing.
Best years of my life ->
@Jason Bloomberg
> I always remember the spirit systems being Roneo / Banda. Gestetner being a more complicated 'tissue paper' with carbon paper and card backing
Ah yes, you're right. The Gestetner 'tissue paper' was quite entertaining because you had to type on it with the ribbon removed from the typewriter so that the hammers would perforate the paper. Fine if you were a touch-typing / copy-typing wizard, less so if you were a 'hunter-peckerer'[1] as you had to squint to see what you had typed.
[1] Homo sapiens evolved from being hunter gatherers, to hunter peckerers in the Information Age
funny, the other day, when I heard the news (minor crime is ok, says the plod, etc.), I thought: wouldn't it be the next step to secure gov funding for a new vocational course for the underemployed, say "legal burglery for dummies", i.e. how to become a profitable burgler, legally...
If supporters of a party directly call someone and up front says they are calling for the party, then can try to persuade people. That is telephone canvassing. It is when another organisation tries to do it while pretending to be independent that breaks the rules. Were the GMB up front about who was calling and why?
Well, you're the first person to mention GMB and unite so all I can say is "that's a lovely strawman you've knocked down".
Besides, why do you assume people aren't bothered by Labour breaking electoral rules just because they're critical of the Tories? Most people grew out of using the "but teacher, Jim did it too..." excuse decades ago.
Every time I get a political phone call I always make up stuff and tell them whatever I feel like - certainly never the truth ... if it's a call from a real human being then I wink at the wife and she comes in with "Are you talking to that bitch again, I'm going to catch her and skin her ..." they usually end the call at that point and never call back ...
Tories use illegal tactics in campaign calls, ICO says, no problem, thise, don't do it again ... I guess that is what they tell Equifax as well ...
Where I live, the current mayor's team "cheated" by using bulletins of people who did not turn up ... the mayor won by ~140 votes, in a city with 300k people. The opposition had 48* hours to investigate the registry and "only" found ~100 entries where a signature was used multiple times ... like, the guyz gave up coming up with new signatures and ended up using the same.
Sadly, for the opposition, 100 != 140, so the mayor officially won the election.
If it were me, you find two occurrences of a signature and neither was legalized (you can vote on behalf of someone, if you fill in the paperwork), you investigate the registry ... but no, not in France ... too much hassle, she's a crook, in other words, one of us ...
* They found 100 suspect votes with a team of ten people going through countless records ... needless to say, massive fraud.
PS: Her personal driver earns more than the drivers of the president of France, happens to be "very" close "acquaintance", if I may say ...basically, driver has the same pay as elite civil servants ...
PPS: Her daughter is senator
PPPS: She got re-elected, nobody turned up to investigate for fraud, what is the point ...
I live in a marginal lib/con area. Got phoned by a Lib Dem canvasser the day before the vote, but he was in Canada - FFS if they can't use local companies they won't get my vote.
OTOH the young conservatives at my front door, accompanied by an obnoxious Aussie bastard who said a vote for the lib dems was a vote for Corbyn, made the choice very simple.
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