Tories in trouble over election fraud

[Berberis]

And there you go again, spending all your time discussing The Independant, and not the subject at hand, it is irrelevant that i chose a link from that paper. there are many others showing the same story, The Independant was just one picked at random

 

What do you expect, its in reply to your comments. We are discussing this very subject.

 

---------- Post added 09-05-2016 at 10:12 ----------

 

Could this have anything to do with the fact that it's the Tories and Lib Dems who have been, or were, in power in recent years?

 

The same thing has happened on "Have I got News for You" with Ian Hislop having been very critical of Labour during their stint in power he has, since 2010, swung his spotlight on to the Tories and, briefly, the Lib Dems.

 

The thing is, even while the Lib Dems were in coalition with the Torys, they were almost entire off the Independent's radar in their print editions, plus I'm speaking about in the last 10-12 years, not the last 5-6.

[El Cid]

The Guardian reported today that the Electoral Commission is looking into electoral fraud in the Case of the Conservative MP’s campaign to defeat Nigel Farage in the Thanet South election of 2015. It now seems that the Conservative Party bussed supporters into many marginal seats, and that the cost of this means that many Tory candidates exceeded the £15,000 limit. This amounts to electoral fraud and if proven would cause a whole series of by-elections across the country possibly removing the Conservative Majority in the House of Commons. I wonder what effect this would have on Brexit?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/mar/15/second-tory-reveals-police-investigated-him-over-spending-allegations

[sgtkate]

They've now been fined just £70,000 for electoral fraud. What a pathetic penalty. They are potentially in power as a majority government and get a pocket change fine. What message does that send to anyone else wanting to try it in the future? 'Carry on old boy, you'll only have to cancel your golf membership to cover the costs.'

[Jeffrey Shaw]

They've now been fined just £70,000 for electoral fraud. What a pathetic penalty. They are potentially in power as a majority government and get a pocket change fine. What message does that send to anyone else wanting to try it in the future? 'Carry on old boy, you'll only have to cancel your golf membership to cover the costs.'

The problem is: we don't know the evidence given to the Electoral Commission nor on what legal basis it:

a. found an offence to have been proven; and

b. determined the appropriate penalty.

Judging on the basis of news reports and journalistic comments is not a sound way to decide any legal dispute!

[Obelix]

They've now been fined just £70,000 for electoral fraud. What a pathetic penalty. They are potentially in power as a majority government and get a pocket change fine. What message does that send to anyone else wanting to try it in the future? 'Carry on old boy, you'll only have to cancel your golf membership to cover the costs.'

 

They are actually in power not potentially I'd have though?

 

I know we'd all rather forget the Ed-stone, indeed Labour wanted to forget it so badly that they forgot as well the list it as an expense and got slapped £20k for the trouble. Is that also a pathetically small penalty?

[sgtkate]

They are actually in power not potentially I'd have though?

 

I know we'd all rather forget the Ed-stone, indeed Labour wanted to forget it so badly that they forgot as well the list it as an expense and got slapped £20k for the trouble. Is that also a pathetically small penalty?

 

Yes it is a pathetically small penalty. If you cannot correctly fill out expenses then you have no business running a country or attempting to. Forget ethics, it just shows a complete lack of financial ability.

 

What I meant by 'potentially' was that the Tories used busses to transport voters to polling stations which isn't illegal, but the costs were over the limits for the national Tory party legal allowed expenditure so they tried to claim it was 'local' use. If they had been forced to correctly bill those busses are national costs they wouldn't have been able to use them and therefore hundreds of votes for Tory candidates in swing constituencies may not have been cast. The Ed-stone was a hilarious fail, and utter incompetence in failing to declare it. The Tory bus-gate is a serious attempt at election fraud by knowingly manipulating expenses to allow them to pay for something they would have been unable to do otherwise.

Edited March 16, 2017 by sgtkate
change counted to been cast as counted implied the wrong thing

[Obelix]

It just seems odd that's all the outrage which was conspicuously missing from the thread here... http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=11516399#post11516399

 

I mean if people wanted to express outrage at election fraud then it's be here too, but this just looks like the usual Nasty Party wanting a bit of kicking against the Conservatives because that's all they can do...

 

I'm sure that Corbyn will be along to say something wet and insipid about it - like he didn't about the NIC U turn....

[nightrider]

I notice that you spend most of your post demonizing The Independant

Has it not occured to you that Tory owned papers may not be too keen to write a piece about it, after all it does not serve their interest..

But here you go, take your pick

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/667688/Conservative-election-fraud-spending-rules-breach

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3950/election-commission-meet-police-over-tory-election-fraud-evidence

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/police-investigating-tory-battle-bus-7853582

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3577005/Now-TWO-police-forces-probe-Tories-election-cash-fraud-amid-claims-party-cheated-failing-properly-declare-battle-bus-spending.html

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/06/eight-forces-investigate-conservative-funding-in-2015-election-campaign

 

The Times has had numerous articles (and its seems fairly pro-tory to me) and isn't the Daily Mail pro-tory nowadays (which is in your list)?

[truman]

Yes it is a pathetically small penalty. If you cannot correctly fill out expenses then you have no business running a country or attempting to. Forget ethics, it just shows a complete lack of financial ability.

 

 

Does that go for tax returns as well?

[Mister M]

Im not demonising anyone and I think you are going a bit over the top there.

 

The Independent was by its very creation meant to be a completely independent newspaper offering a none political bias. I for one was a reader of the paper but noticed how they seemed to hold the Torys to account much more than Labour and the Lib Dems in recent years. This seems to coincide with with their downward spiral and eventual ending of their print editions. I suspect, their reduction in journalistic input has condensed their already political leanings which has inturn sped up their demise.

 

Now that's an interesting perception of political leaning because at the last General Election the Independent supported a Conservative and Liberal Government

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32585930