Tory Government will force councils to fund questionable foreign organisations

Last Updated: October 4, 2015By
Matthew Hancock.

Matthew Hancock.

What do you think of this, from The Guardian?

Councils and local authorities are to be blocked from boycotting Israeli products or pursuing other foreign policy goals that conflict with the government.

Conservative aides said the measure was a response to growing concern about the “militant actions of leftwing councils” that they claimed was spurred on by the Labour leadership.

The new rules will stop politically motivated boycott and divestment campaigns by town halls against UK defence companies and against Israel.

The Cabinet Office minister, Matthew Hancock, said the action was intended to prevent “playground politics” from councils.

The government will amend pension legislation to make clear that using pensions and procurement policies to pursue boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaigns against other countries and the UK defence industry are inappropriate, unless they are in line with action on a national level.

Local authorities have in the past introduced investment or boycott policies designed to punish companies and countries they disagree with politically. Last November, Leicester city council agreed a boycott on products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Doesn’t it seem as though the Conservative Government is cracking down on dissent by forcing other democratically-elected bodies to follow Tory spending policies?

Doesn’t it seem as though the Conservative Government is forcing local authorities to spend their precious funds only on Tory-approved third parties, no matter how expensive or inappropriate?

Doesn’t it seem as though members of the Conservative Government might have a personal financial interest in ensuring local authorities behave that way?

Isn’t it therefore likely to be not only inappropriate but actually illegal to force councils to spend their funds in this way?

How many Conservative MPs have financial interests in this particular policy line?

Has anybody checked out Matthew Hancock in the register of members’ interests?

And look at the language being used: “Playground politics”, “militant actions of leftwing councils”. Look at what those councils are doing and you’ll see they are steering clear from investing in organisations that may have questionable motives – but the Tories don’t want people to think about that, so they’re using pejorative language to put us off.

The simple fact that the Tories are demanding that local authorities put their money into those organisations raises serious questions about the priorities of the Conservative Party.

How can we have those questions answered?

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10 Comments

  1. John. October 4, 2015 at 12:42 am - Reply

    The Gaza death camp is no playground and the politics of boycotting a supremacist criminal colony in the middle east is a noble cause.

  2. Stephen Bee October 4, 2015 at 1:35 am - Reply

    “How many Conservative MPs have financial interests in this particular policy line?”

    You only have to look at the list of Tory MP’s who belong to The Friends of Israel group for your answer…..Israel’s economy is really being hit hard by the BDS movement and Nuttyahoo is a bit ‘miffed’ But then C..ameron is to Nuttyahoo..what the Pig was to Cameron

  3. Harry October 4, 2015 at 1:47 am - Reply

    Forced consensus? Certainly unlawful. Councils must respond to their constituents, as should the national Government. Who the Devil do these people think pays their exhorbitant salaries?

  4. jaynel62 October 4, 2015 at 5:00 am - Reply

    And as a Leicester City resident I assure you the powers behind the boycott last year is Nothing to do with Left wing Politics at all

    • fathomie October 4, 2015 at 9:25 pm - Reply

      This was a point that was raised earlier. It isn’t just ‘left wing’ councils that don’t want to deal with dodgy foreign powers, and in a democracy, what on Earth does the Govt think it’s doing denying elected bodies the right to do what their constituents have campaigned for? The irony of it is, by describing councils that fail to do their bidding as ‘left wing’ indulging in ‘playground politics’, the latter is exactly what the govt are doing. This is cynical politics at it’s worst.

  5. marcusdemowbray October 4, 2015 at 6:40 am - Reply

    It’s another disturbing similarity to Nazi Germany: close down any source of opposition to the Glorious Leader. Another similarity being the deceit and hypocrisy: their claims that “We want to give MORE power to local people and the regions” actually translate to “Obey us or face our standard slash and burn policies, institutional castration and criminalisation. It also makes CaMoron’s claim to want a “One Nation Government, and Government for all the people” now seem extremely deceitful and sinister. George Orwell’s 1984 supposedly described a Stalinist/Leftist Regime, but the refusal to allow democratic dissent, the wish to close the BBC and remove local democracy, whilst doing the exact opposite of what you say – i.e. NEWSPEAK is all very chilling.

  6. NMac October 4, 2015 at 8:48 am - Reply

    Just when you think the Nasty Party can’t get any more obnoxious and nastier, they prove you wrong.

  7. ian725 October 4, 2015 at 4:35 pm - Reply

    Tories have now completely lost the plot.

  8. boromoor October 4, 2015 at 11:07 pm - Reply

    “The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.”
    ― Adolf Hitler

  9. mrmarcpc October 6, 2015 at 2:07 pm - Reply

    It’s amazing how they are still getting away with it!

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