Category: General Election 2015
Who won the UK elections? Hedge funds and MI5
By NAFEEZ AHMED
The Conservatives have won the 2015 elections with a slim majority. Labour and the Liberal Democrats suffered unexpected crushing defeats, prompting their leaders, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, to resign. And despite winning a significant percentage of votes, UKIP only managed to win one seat, with its leader Nigel Farage also resigning after losing to a Tory MP.
But the Tory victory reveals precisely why British democracy is broken.
The ultimate determinant of which party won the elections was the money behind their political campaigns — the winning and losing parties correlate directly with the quantity of funding received. Yet there is also compelling evidence of another factor — interference from Britain’s security services.
As of the end of last year, the Electoral Commission found that the Tories received the largest amount of donations, at £8,345,687, the bulk of which came from financiers associated with banks, the hedge fund industry, and big business. Two million pounds worth of donations were associated with hedge funds, and a further £4 million with people attending private dinners hosted by senior Tories.
Next up in donations was Labour at £7,163,988, much of which came from trade unions, as well as corporate donors like PricewaterhouseCoopers, a major proponent of corporate tax avoidance; then the Liberal Democrats with £3,038,500, UKIP with £1,505,055, and the Green Party with £248,520.
That was last year. This year, donations continued to come in. In the final week of the campaign, the Tories managed to raise 10 times more donations than Labour — a total of a further £1.36 million — once again largely from hedge fund managers, property tycoons, and a telecoms firm that has avoided paying corporation tax in the UK since 2007.
Political parties appear to have achieved electoral success in direct proportion to the amount of money received to fund their political campaigns, indicating that the most important precondition for victory in Britain’s broken democracy is the party’s subservience to corporate power.
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Source – BSNews, 11 May 2015
http://bsnews.info/who-won-the-uk-elections-hedge-funds-and-mi5/
The ‘lost’ votes in the 2015 General Election
Hundreds of thousands of British citizens were left unable to vote around the world and across the UK after registering to vote by post.
Ex-pats from all over the world have complained that they did not receive their ballot papers in time to vote in the general election.
Speaking in the Independent, Brian Cave, 82, an expat in south-eastern France, has been compiling a dossier of evidence of the problem which he plans to send to the Electoral Commission. He said reports have come in that standard UK postage was used on ballot papers that arrived too late to be sent back by the close of voting at 10pm last night.
“I have received complaints from people about the non-reception of voting papers from as far apart as California, Massachusetts, Norway, France and Spain,” said Mr Cave, who runs a blog supporting the rights of Britons overseas.
He said:…
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What the Conservative win means for your money
Article reposted from AOL Money UK
Good Morning my darlings. I’m feeling a little less emotional about the election result (still angry though) and so I decided to look into what’s to come …
Few people predicted any one party could win outright but now the Conservatives have done just that.
Before today, the party manifestos were seen as starting points for coalition negotiations, but now that the Tories have won a small majority they will be able to implement their pledges.
So what were those pledges and how will they affect you? Let’s take a look…
Your taxes
The Tory manifesto was stuffed full of promises on tax, including raising the personal allowance to £12,500 and increasing the 40% tax threshold to £50,000. The threshold is currently £42,386, which means current higher-rate taxpayers could save a tidy sum.
A key Conservative pledge was on inheritance tax…
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Illegitimate Tory government started their path of destruction within hours of election (#UK #politics #bedroomtax)
Within hours of the general election result being announced the Conservative party announced several policies, some of which had been ‘hampered’ by their coalition partners in the last government.
As the results came in and it was clear the Conservatives were heading back to Number 10, Theresa May announced that the party would reintroduce the Draft Communications Data Bill, giving the government unprecedented surveillance power.
The snoopers’ charter received huge criticism from computing experts and civil liberties campaigners in the wake of introduction. It was set to come into law in 2014, but Nick Clegg withdrew his support for the bill and it was blocked by the Liberal Democrats.
Cameron indicated that the government would seek even more surveillance powers. Speaking in Paris in January, he said there should be no form of communication that the government was unable to read, which could lead to encrypted messaging applications such as…
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How to organise and take direct action
There’s been a lot of interest this morning, from people disillusioned by party politics, in how to go about organising and taking direct action. So I thought I’d throw out a quick post with some practical tips.
If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere like London, there may already be a vibrant movement – in which case, find an active local group, and go along to their meetings. If you’re in smaller towns and cities, or in a part of London that’s not yet kicking off, then those groups might not be on your doorstep – yet. But a movement has to start somewhere! So here are some tips for doing effective direct action wherever you are. This isn’t a checklist, but some ideas. What will work will vary with the area and with the issues focused on. And I’m no expert: this time last year I had never organised! But here’s what I’ve seen produce results since I’ve been involved:
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When Politics Is This Broken It’s Time To Get Out In The Fucking Streets – Starting Tomorrow, 3pm Conservative HQ
If yesterday’s election showed anything it is that most people do not want a Tory government. Just 20% of the public voted Tory – the same proportion of the population the Office for National Statistics estimates have a personal wealth of over £600,000. The rich are in charge despite what the rest of us want. As usual.
No matter what might have happened yesterday the rich would still be in charge. The UK’s electoral system has been designed over hundreds of years to ensure precisely that. In Scotland the whole country can vote on mass to reject both of the main political parties and it doesn’t make a blind bit of fucking difference. A million people can vote Green and nearly four million UKIP and nothing will change. Although the UKIP thing is pretty funny. Bye Nigel.
Already some in the Labour Party want to lurch even further to the…
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So That’s It?
There’s an appalling stench to the election result and it’s one of scaremongering and dirty tricks, but there’s also a faint odour of Labour’s weakness, complacency and drift. Scottish Labour, especially, ran an abysmal catch-up campaign in which they adopted Tory scare tactics to try to frighten voters into returning to them. Labour also made a huge mistake in standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the Scottish independence referendum. This, as well as their reluctance to offer a clear alternative vision to voters, cost them dearly not only in Scotland but south of the border too.
The turnout for this election was 66% nationwide. That’s nothing to crow about. In French presidential elections, the vote often exceeds 80%. According to the Daily Mirror, in Lucy Powell’s constituency, only 18% bothered to vote in the 2012 by-election. Yesterday the turnout was 44%. It isn’t great. That tells us that some voters who…
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ELECTION 2015 – they think it’s all over
To say I am gutted at the outcome of the 2015 General Election would be an understatement.
I am lucky. I work. I don’t claim benefits, due to a small inheritance from a late relative, I don’t have to worry about money. I am relatively healthy.
But, we are all one malignant cell, one car crash, one redundancy from having to rely on the welfare state.
Although I had a bit of a twitter argument with an SNP voter this morning, I admire Scotland for coming together and ousting the tories completely. I just wish they’d voted Labour which would have reduced the tory majority.
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Cold comfort: this is not our defeat
Obviously, I’m not feeling great this morning. But I also think I’m feeling better than a lot of my friends, so I wanted to take a moment to think about why that is. Some of it is just that I was never that invested in the possibility of a Labour win in the first place – over the last few days, great pieces from the excellent Johnny Void and Kate Belgrave have summed up a lot of the reasons why I didn’t hope for much from Labour. But I think there’s something more than that: ultimately, I don’t think that our defeat is something that happened last night. Looking at the big picture, our defeat, our lack of power over our own lives, is something that’s been happening for centuries, something that’s recreated every time we get up and go to work and make money for our bosses, every time…
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Ukip candidate missed off Darlington ballot papers at one polling station – but voters urged to keep voting
A parliamentary candidate has been missed off some ballot papers in Darlington – but voters have been urged to keep voting.
The Ukip candidate David Hodgson has been missed off ballot papers delivered to the Whessoe polling district.
The council says 89 people who have voted so far are affected. The correct ballot papers have now been issued.
Ada Burns, Darlington Council chief executive, said:
“We have taken advice from the Electoral Commission and are confident that the election can go ahead as normal.
“The turnout so far has been excellent and the message is to keep voting.”
Ukip candidate David Hodgson, a lecturer, said:
“I learnt it myself ten minutes ago that my name has been missed off the papers – I don’t know if it’s across all of the wards because the info I got is very short at the moment.
“It’s shocking – absolutely terrible and inexcusable. I understand the Ukip office has been informed and will be lodging a protest.
“I don’t know what happenened but surely some law has been breached. I’ve not got a clue what happens now but I’m guessing the only way to resolve it is for it to be re-run.
“I’m working at the moment and it’s knocked me sick but I cant walk out on my class.”
Labour candidate Jenny Chapman said he had been briefed about the problem.
“I’m furious and I understand completely how Mr Hodgson feels,” she added.
Darlington Borough Council leader Bill Dixon said he was unaware of any problems.
He said the postal votes went out several weeks ago without any issues, and these ballot papers were printed at the same time as those for people voting in person.
A spokeswoman for Darlington Borough Council said voting in the general and local elections was continuing as normal but that the name of one candidate, David Hodgson (UKIP) had been missed off ballot papers issued to one polling station in the borough.
“Approximately 89 ballot papers (0.1% of the total number of ballot papers printed) had been issued, but as soon as the issue was identified, corrected ballot papers were issued to the polling station concerned,” she said.
Due to doubts that all 89 would be contactable the council has chosen the second option. If the 89 votes are critical to the result at the end of the polling a petition challenging the outcome could be mounted and considered by a court of law.
Source – Northern Echo, 07 May 2015
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