Tag Archives: electoral law

Mark Valladares

7 March 2024 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 7th March 2024 - 11:45 pm
  • Resolution Foundation reveals £8bn pensioner tax bombshell in Budget
  • “All the hallmarks of a backroom deal”- Welsh Lib Dems react to decision to keep new controversial Senedd voting system
  • Donelan scandal: Lib Dems demand ethics advisor probe and Science Minister to step aside whilst investigation ongoing
  • Carmichael calls for UK ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements
  • SNP cancel bus fund after spending less than 6% – Rennie
  • McArthur responds to news that more crimes will not be investigated

Resolution Foundation reveals £8bn pensioner tax bombshell in Budget

Jeremy Hunt’s Budget includes an £8bn tax bombshell for pensioners, analysis from the Resolution Foundation has revealed.

All 8 million tax-paying pensioners will see their taxes increase due to the freezing of income tax thresholds. This will leave the average taxpaying pensioner £1,000 worse off by 2027-28, – or an £8 billion collective hit.

Responding to the analysis, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

Buried in the small print of this Budget is a disgraceful £8 billion pensioner tax bombshell.

People who have worked hard and done the right thing all their lives are being hammered by Jeremy Hunt with years of unfair tax hikes, leaving them an average of £1,000 worse off each.

This Conservative government has shown their true colours, pensioners are not their priority. They would rather cut taxes for the big banks than look after those who have given so much for so long to our society.

“All the hallmarks of a backroom deal”- Welsh Lib Dems react to decision to keep new controversial Senedd voting system

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have described the decision to keep the new Senedd voting system as having “all the hallmarks of a backroom deal”.

From 2026, votes will be cast for parties instead of individual candidates as part of plans to expand the Senedd.

Critics of the new voting system say that it takes power away from the voter and places it in the hands of political party bosses.

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Posted in News, Press releases, Scotland and Wales | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , and | 9 Comments
The Voice

Carmichael warns on new election spending regulations

By The Voice | Tue 21st November 2023 - 9:49 pm

So, if you’re the Tories and you’re lagging in the polls, you’ve run out of ideas and you’re basically a hot mess masquerading as a Government, but you want to grip on to power because you think you are entitled to it, what do you do?

You can’t gerrymander like the Republicans have done in states all over the US to ensure that they run State legislatures because our boundary setting process is independent.

Well, you could give yourself a massive financial boost by raising the campaign spending limits to a level at which you can comfortably outspend your rivals. And you also raise the levels at which you have to report donations.

In Parliament today, without debate, they slipped out a regulation doing just that.

Now these limits were well overdue a rise, but these limits should be set by consensus between the parties. Not on how much money the party of the rich can expect to raise.

Alistair Carmichael took to Twitter to express his displeasure:

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Caron Lindsay

Thousands denied vote in local elections due to voter ID law

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 20th May 2023 - 2:38 pm

As we start to work out the impact of the Conservatives’ attempt at voter suppression, early analysis shows that at least 10,000 people lost out on the chance to vote in the local elections in May. Figures released by local councils suggest include those refused inside the polling stations and don’t count those turned away by greeters on the door.

From the BBC

David Cowling, a former BBC polling expert who is now a visiting research fellow at King’s College London, also says it must be borne in mind that some voters initially turned away later return with ID.

He says evidence from metropolitan borough councils, and the pilots, suggests around 60% of people initially refused a ballot return with valid ID – producing a rough figure of 0.2% refusals of the votes cast.

“That’s arguably 0.2% fewer people than there should be not participating – but on the other hand, it doesn’t seem to me that the death of democracy is on the agenda either,” he told BBC Radio 4’s More or Less.
He adds, however, that there are “imponderables” in the council data, including the fact that people turned back by so-called greeters outside polling stations were not included in the published figures.

This first outing for voter ID has taken place at a relatively low turnout set of elections. Turnout in the General Election will be higher and potentially more people will lose out on the opportunity to have their say.

This initial analysis comes in the week when Jacob Rees-Mogg basically admitted at the dreadful National Conservative conference that the measures had been introduced to boost Conservative support but he argued that they had lost the party votes:

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Caron Lindsay

Changes to electoral law passed this week will help disabled candidates

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th February 2019 - 8:55 am

An order passed by the House of Lords this week will mean that expenses reasonably attributable to a candidates’ disability will no longer count towards their election expenses.

The Minister, Lord Young of Cookham, told the Lords:

Examples of such expenses include, but are not limited to, British Sign Language interpretation for hearing-impaired candidates, the transcription of campaign material into braille for visually impaired candidates and specialist equipment. This order will also exclude expenses funded from grants provided through the Government’s interim EnAble Fund for Elected Office from electoral spending limits. This £250,000 interim fund will support disabled candidates ​and help cover disability-related expenses that people might face when seeking elected office, such as those I have listed

Our John Shipley welcomed the proposal:

I thank the Minister for explaining this order and I want to record that I agree with it. It is entirely appropriate that any disability-related expenses in elections should be exempt from spending limits, on principle. That is because it helps disabled candidates to stand for election on equal terms with others. I noted the Minister’s comments about some objections that may have been raised on some of the details—but none is more important than the overall principle of equality of opportunity.

This order is in force now for the May elections.

But it isn’t any use to disabled candidates unless we actually help them with the costs of getting elected. 

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Mark Valladares

1 November 2018 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 1st November 2018 - 8:00 pm

We’ve got a veritable torrent of press releases today, starting with an example of the Party being rather more radical than Labour…

Cable: £1.3 billion for higher-rate payers should be used to reverse welfare cuts

The Liberal Democrats have announced they will be voting against the Government’s plans to raise the higher-rate tax threshold to £50,000.

The policy – announced in Monday’s budget – will cost an estimated £1.3 billion pounds next year, money which could instead be used to reverse cuts to Universal Credit or end the benefits freeze a year early.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince …

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Paul Tyler

Paul Tyler writes…Was the Brexit poll compromised?

By Paul Tyler | Wed 18th April 2018 - 8:55 am

That is the question the Conservative Chair of the investigating Commons Select Committee asked last weekend.  Hitherto, his Ministerial colleagues have seemed determined to turn a blind eye to all the recent revelations of possible illegality by Leave campaigners.

Will they be more forthcoming this afternoon ?     My Question to be discussed in the Lords reads as follows:

“Lord Tyler to ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are satisfied that current electoral law adequately prevents the misuse of personal data in United Kingdom elections and referendum campaigns”

The HOUSE magazine has published some background for this mini debate:

The revelations come thick and fast.   Daily – sometimes it seems like hourly – we learn that our personal data may have been misused in ever more controversial ways.  In particular, ingenious development of Facebook material appears to have played a key role in targeting both positive messages and contrived attacks in the Trump election campaign AND to secure the Brexit result of our own 2016 EU Referendum.

So far Ministers have hidden behind a reassuring report from the Electoral Commission about the conduct of that referendum.  However, that was issued months ago, long before the detailed analysis from Carole Cadwalladr of The Observer began to gain traction, and the whistleblowers from Cambridge Analytica, AIQ and the Leave campaigns emerged to give their evidence.   Since the turn of the year the alleged network of illicit collaboration has caused the Electoral Commission, the Information Commissioner and the House of Commons Culture Media & Sport Select Committee to open new investigations.  The latter, led by Conservative MP Damian Collins, is being especially pro-active, and their witness list in the next few days is itself an indication of the vital role Parliamentary Select Committees can now play.

Despite apparent BBC attempts to minimise the significance of all this increasing weight of evidence (presumably because other media have provided the investigative journalism) there are signs of growing public unease.   Have we as nation been conned, just like so many in the US ?    Has our personal data been “scraped” for this purpose ?   Are our very strict laws, which seek to protect our elections and referendum campaigns from being bought by billionaires and foreign governments, up to the job?

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Who benefits most from voters having to show ID?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 29th December 2016 - 10:59 pm

I had thought that the Vanquis advert would be the thing that would irritate me the most during this chilled out festive week. Even if you lay aside the fact that it’s advertising outrageously overpriced credit, the utter misogyny of the plot line should see its creators banished back to the 11th century where they belong.

But no, the Tories had something to seriously annoy me. Their plan to make voters show ID at polling stations in the name of “securing the ballot” is a thinly disguised attempt to skew the voting in their favour. Let me explain. If you are young or poor, you are less likely to be able to afford a passport or even a driving licence. Some don’t have a bank account. You may also not have your name on a utility bill. If you live at home with your parents, as many young people do, or if you are sharing a house with several others, you may simply not have the prescribed ID and will not be able to vote.

It’s as if there weren’t enough barriers already to young or poor people voting already. And these groups, shall we say, tend not to vote Conservative. Putting more obstacles in the way of these people casting a vote seems at best irresponsible.

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The Voice

Lib Dem Elaine Bagshaw comments on removal of Tower Hamlets mayor Rahman

By The Voice | Thu 23rd April 2015 - 3:45 pm

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets has been found guilty of corrupt electoral practices and removed from office. There is a 200 page judgement which outlines in detail the allegations against him which range from personation to the old offence of “undue spiritual influence.” There is a section on that latter offence which goes through the history of it being used in Ireland against the undue spiritual influence of the Catholic church in the 19th century. The judgement also goes through the history of toxic Labour factionalism in the borough which is an eye-opening read to say the least. The judgement also relies on the judgement in a case which may well be familiar to readers – that of Phil Woolas, when the Oldham East election result was overturned back in 2010.

It is pretty shocking to have the result of an election turned aside because of compelling evidence of various types of fraud.

There will now be a by-election in which Rahman will not be allowed to stand. He will also have to pay £250,000 in costs.

Local Liberal Democrat candidate for Poplar and Limehouse Elaine Bagshaw commented:

Community politics and cohesion is central to a liberal society, so as Liberal Democrats we will be working in the by-election that will now happen to unite our community so that we can move forward and build a stronger economy and a fairer society in Tower Hamlets.

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Caron Lindsay

LibLink: Mark Pack: There’s rather more to the story of “Police call on someone who tweeted criticism of UKIP”

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 15th May 2014 - 2:00 pm

There’s been a fair bit of discussion online about the incident last weekend when two Cambridgeshire Police Officers visited Green Party member Michael Abberton over a tweet which contained his edited, fact checked version of an anti-UKIP poster designed by someone else.

He told the whole story on his Axe of Reason blog.

Julian Huppert, as you can imagine, expressed concern about the and …

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