The Electoral Commission has written to Guido, ConservativeHome, LabourList and LibDemVoice to provide them with “guidance” to bring them into line with the Putinesque provisions of the new Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.
Mark Ferguson at LabourList says
“It seems particularly bizarre (and that’s being generous) that there’s one law for “newspapers and periodicals” and another for “websites”. Perhaps the government are finding this new-fangled internet thing very confusing. We’re still working through what the most appropriate response is to this dreadful law – more worthy of a banana-Republic than a democracy – that clamps down on campaigning and free speech at a time when it’s needed most, election time. Whatever response we decide on though, we will not be submitting ourselves to any form of regulation that stops us from writing, reporting and commenting on the election campaign as we see fit.”
ConservativeHome’s editor Paul Goodman tells Guido whilst sorrowfully shaking his head, that he feels the site has no alternative, given the terms of the Lobbying Act, but to “run some pieces by senior Labour MPs during the election campaign”.
After ringing round it seems that other political blogs like the Spectator’s CoffeeHouse and PoliticalBetting.com have not being offered “guidance” by the Electoral Commission. Guido has written back to the Electoral Commission:
Dear Electoral Commission,
Thanks, but we’re not registering with you and
we’re not going to pay any attention to your rules.Yours in freedom,
Paul Staines
Editor Guido Fawkes’ Blog
Guido has no intention of registering with the Electoral Commission or reporting a penny of spending or anything else to them. This authoritarian law is a nonsense. If you read the guidance it should apply to newspapers. We haven’t just rejected statutory control of the printed press by one regulator for political control of digital media by another…
See: Electoral Commission letter in full [PDF]
This image is a screengrab from last night’s News at Ten. The BBC web page explaining their editorial guidelines on the issue has mysteriously disappeared today. A very big Mo-ment for free speech…
It seems Dimbleby was still reading from the now ancient text on Question Time after the image went out last night:
“The prophet Mohammed must not be represented in any shape or form.”
Guido has contacted the BBC press office to see if they have had any complaints or threats…
UPDATE: BBC confirms the change in policy:
“This guidance is old, out of date and does not reflect the BBC’s long-standing position that programme makers have freedom to exercise their editorial judgement with the Editorial Policy team available to provide advice around sensitive issues on a case by case basis. The guidance is currently being revised.”
They had no complaints.
We are standing in solidarity with those impacted by yesterday's attack on Charlie Hebdo. #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/NumC5jMFZe
— NoMorePage3 (@NoMorePage3) January 8, 2015
irony – ˈʌɪrəni/ – noun
1. the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
2. a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often wryly amusing as a result.
This is not a spoof.
“I always get them confused with ISIS,” says Armando Iannucci of IPSO…
“What he did WAS quite bad.
Not because it was sexting, which these days is not uncommon.
Nor that his sexual behaviour might not meet with public approval, which these days isn’t necessary.
No, what he did was foolishly accept the flirtation of a woman, give her his mobile number, and then demand intimate photographs of her.
Not once, not twice, but repeatedly. He asked, requested, persuaded, induced and inveigled.
He was a man of wealth, power and influence, taking sexual gratification from what he thought was a young woman with none of those things.
That’s a bad thing. It’s a bad thing whether you’re left or right wing and whichever news outlet you prefer.
In any other job, on work time and the work phone, it’s a disciplinary offence.
In a government minister, paid £97,000 a year by the taxpayer to promote a more civil society, it’s appalling.
And that’s without asking how much it cost us for him to ping his paisley-patterned porn about the place.
The public interest in this story is not just whether a man who misbehaves in his pyjamas can misbehave in public office, although that is an issue for many people.
Nor just that a Government minister was opening himself to blackmail with his behaviour, which should be a sacking offence anyway.
It’s that a man in our employ, tasked with encouraging us all to be nicer and with making his party more friendly towards women, was so utterly awful at his job.”
What she said.
Jodie,
I’ve happily done a little bit here and there for Index. A speech at an event, an article, a bid at an auction or a table at a fundraiser. I don’t claim to be the biggest donor to Index, over the years perhaps my support has been in the low thousands.
I will never give another penny to Index as long as Steve Coogan is involved.
Paul Staines
Editor Guido Fawkes’ Blog
Guido.Fawkes@Order-Order.com
