General Election 12 December.

[Top Cats Hat]

On 12/11/2019 at 11:46, hauxwell said:

How can  Russia interfere with a general election in the UK?  

I suspect a clue may be found in the report that Bozo wont release until after the election.

[alchresearch]

15 hours ago, Anna B said:

Jeremy Corbyn's aims are well known and haven't changed that much from their last manifesto. Unlkike Boris Johnson who makes new promises every week with no intention of keeping any of them. . .  

Hmmm, I'd like to know how many of these Labour can keep.   I'll add them to the list of other zany promises, such as re-nationalisation.

 

General election 2019: Labour promises year of maternity pay

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50338831

 

General election 2019: Labour promises to open 1,000 new Sure Start centres in £1bn childcare drive

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/general-election-2019-labour-sure-start-centres-childcare-drive-920355

 

Labour promises £26,000,000,000 for NHS by taxing UK’s richest

https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/13/labour-promises-26000000000-nhs-taxing-uks-richest-11088555

 

General Election 2019: Labour's 32-hour week policy 'applies to all'  - except it doesn't because the Shadow Health secretary said it doesn't

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50404399

 

 

[hobinfoot]

14 hours ago, Top Cats Hat said:

I suspect a clue may be found in the report that Bozo wont release until after the election.

The report can’t be released during the purdah period.

14 hours ago, Top Cats Hat said:

I suspect a clue may be found in the report that Bozo wont release until after the election.

The report can’t be released during the purdah period.

[L00b]

6 minutes ago, hobinfoot said:

The report can’t be released during the purdah period.

Can you explain why?

[alchresearch]

11 minutes ago, L00b said:

Can you explain why?

Quote

Between now and Christmas, your local councils will be behaving a little bit differently.

Until the general election has taken place on December 12, local authorities in Somerset will be less willing to give their views or issue statements about big issues in their area.

 

It's not because they've stopped caring about you, or because they have nothing interesting to say - it's because the rules about what councils can and can't say are very different when an election is taking place.

 

It's the third time this year that purdah has been in place - following the local elections on May 2 and the European Parliament election on May 23.

 

Here's our guide to how purdah works, and what it means for you.

 

What is purdah?

The term 'purdah' comes from the Urdu or Persian word for 'veil' or 'curtain'.

In Muslim or Hindu societies, it referred to the practice of screening women from men or strangers, often involving a curtain or women being covered in certain garments.

Its modern usage refers to the pre-election period, which usually begins six weeks before polling day.

But because of the snap election being called at short notice by prime minister Boris Johnson, the purdah period for the 2019 general election is five weeks and one day (including election day itself).

You can think of it as local government 'screening itself' from controversy, by not taking certain decisions or publishing statements which could influence voters.

 

What can a council not do during purdah?

Until the polls close at 10pm on Thursday, December 12, councils cannot make any decisions which could influence or prejudice the outcome of the general election.

This includes announcing any new spending, launching new strategies or publishing any form of new policy that had not been agreed before the purdah period began.

In short, if a "reasonable" person could conclude that public money was being spent to influence the outcome of the election through a given action, then a council cannot do said action.

The Local Government Association has produced an exhaustive list of what councils definitively cannot do during purdah.

It includes:

• Producing publicity on matters which are politically controversial (for instance, issuing statements about Brexit)
• Making references to individual politicians or groups in press releases (for instance, giving someone who is standing for a particular ward credit for a policy which affects that area)
• Arranging proactive media or events involving candidates
• Issuing photographs which include candidates
• Supplying council photographs or other materials to councillors or political group staff (unless they have been confirmed as not being for campaigning purposes)
• Hosting third party blogs or e-communications on their websites
• Helping with national political visits, as this would involve using public money to support a particular candidate or party. These visits must be organised and paid for entirely by the political parties themselves

What about campaigns and public consultations?

If a council is already running an ongoing campaign (e.g. trying to recruit more foster carers) or has a public consultation already under way (e.g. on developments sites within its Local Plan), it does not have to suspend these if doing so would lead to public money being wasted.

If, however, the subject of this consultation or campaign becomes a matter of debate in the election campaign, then it can be suspended or deferred.

No new consultations can be launched during purdah, unless the council has a statutory duty to do so, and the findings of consultations cannot be published until after the election.

Local authorities can also choose to delay decisions until after the purdah period if there is not enough time for them to be properly scrutinised.

For instance, Devon and Somerset Fire Authority was due to meet on December 18 to agree a number of proposals which would see a number of fire stations in the two counties either cut or scaled back.

Legally, it could have taken this decision, since the consultation began before the election was called, and the decision would not take place until after the election was over.

But on Friday (November 8), the authority agreed to push this meeting back until early-2020 due to the "significant political issues" involved and the availability of its members, who all sit on local councils.

 

Is there anything councils CAN do during purdah?

Yes - council workers don't just sit around and do nothing until a new government is in place.

Your bins will still get collected, your roads and streets will still be cleaned, and you'll still be charged for car parking. And decisions on planning applications, licenses to serve alcohol or drive taxis, and other routine matters can still be made.

Councils can publish factual information in response to "misleading, controversial or extreme" statements being made - for instance, racist or sexist information, or correcting statistical information.

During the pre-election period, statements of this kind may be made by senior officers rather than elected members.

In an emergency situation - something that is beyond the council's control - there is some flexibility for elected politicians to issue a response to the situation.

However, in these circumstances, a council leader may issue a joint statement agreed with the leaders of other party groups as a precaution.

 

What does this mean for me?

During purdah, councils can continue to make and publish decisions on more routine matters, such as planning applications or premises licences.

So if you're trying to get permission to build a house or change the times when you can serve alcohol in your pub, you won't have to wait until after the election is over to get a decision one way or the other.

Public meetings will still take place to discuss these matters, and where decisions are delegated to officers these must still be published on the councils' websites.

And of course, you'll probably hear a lot more from the people wanting to represent you, whether through leaflets, conversations on your doorstep, public hustings being held in your area, or on social media.

How much you choose to engage with your local candidates, in whichever way, is entirely up to you.

 

Edited November 14, 2019 by alchresearch

[L00b]

Thanks alchresearch...but that FAQ about local government under purdah does not explain why central government would not release a fact-finding report under purdah rules. Not one little bit.

 

FTAOD, I'm already familiar with those (even had a little fun over it with the Brit ambassador at a local function last week; and as the consumate FO professional that he was, he was not biting).

 

I'm just quizzing hobinfoot about his claim.

Edited November 14, 2019 by L00b

[apelike]

21 hours ago, L00b said:

In the current (British) political climate, what some unnamed security experts "seem to think" matters little more to me, in the absence of objective supporting evidence, than what a Labour HQ spokesperson says.

But it was not a Labour HQ spokesperson that stated it was an attack coordinated by Russia but an unnamed Labour MP which make quite a difference when there is also a GE campaign going on.

 

Here is a quote from the Times:

"Despite Labour’s description of the attack as “sophisticated”, cyber security experts consider this type of attack to be relatively unsophisticated. Attribution may also be more difficult compared with other types of cyber attack because it is harder to identify where the flood of data is coming from, security officials said. The BBC quoted a Labour party “source” who said the attack could have come from “Russia or Brazil”, but the security officials added there was no evidence at this stage that the attack had come from a hostile state such as Russia or North Korea."

 

Even our own NCSC, part of the communications intelligence service at GCHQ has downplayed the incident and says the matter is now closed. If it had been anything to do with Russian involvement then that would still be an ongoing investigation for obvious reasons.

 

Quote

The issue, at least as I see it, is that Russia has plenty of form about the matter and modus operandi, and plenty of motive on top of that, where Labour does not.  Which will explain why either the DDOS attack originated from there, or why the attacker -if not Russian indeed- used Russian IPs to launch the DDOS attack from.

Russia may have form but it seems suspicious that Labour had also had a data leak on its website with some names of donors only the day before. Labour also does have a Political motive and that is to suggest that (unknown) outsiders are attacking their website during a GE campaign. With this type of attack (DDOS) it is very hard to tell where it originates from as it is normally done by hijacking multiple computers to send data requests to overload the website so the IPs are hard to trace back as there is so many of them.

 

Edited November 14, 2019 by apelike

[hobinfoot]

2 hours ago, L00b said:

Thanks alchresearch...but that FAQ about local government under purdah does not explain why central government would not release a fact-finding report under purdah rules. Not one little bit.

 

FTAOD, I'm already familiar with those (even had a little fun over it with the Brit ambassador at a local function last week; and as the consumate FO professional that he was, he was not biting).

 

I'm just quizzing hobinfoot about his claim.

The purdah rules are applicable to all Uk elections. They state  reports that could be used for and against someone during an election can’t be released.

[altus]

37 minutes ago, hobinfoot said:

The purdah rules are applicable to all Uk elections. They state  reports that could be used for and against someone during an election can’t be released.

Johnson was handed the final report two weeks before parliament was dissolved for the election. There was plenty of time for it to be reviewed and published. The inescapable conclusion is that it has been deliberately held back because it contains information about Russian attempts to influence the Tory Party.

[L00b]

1 hour ago, hobinfoot said:

The purdah rules are applicable to all Uk elections. They state  reports that could be used for and against someone during an election can’t be released.

Yes, I'm aware of their applicability during UK elections, and of their purpose. I'd even bet some money that most people aren't aware of the muslim/hindu origin and practice behind the word.

 

What has not been explained so far, is why they would apply to a Parliamentary (therefore legitimate) cross-party (therefore politically unbiased) fact-finding (therefore objective rather than opinionated) report.

 

I was hoping that, given the assertiveness of your earlier claim, you could shed some light on that, maybe with a link or two (to the actual rules you mention, and/or a quote from an independent and reasonably authoritative source).

 

Sadly, that doesn't seem possible, does it?

Edited November 14, 2019 by L00b