The Tories are attacking the Electoral Commission. What are they trying to hide?
Is Boris Johnson attacking the Electoral Commission to hide his connections with Russian influencers like Evgeny Lebedev?
Boris Johnson’s onslaught against the rule of law is building up speed.
His Conservative government wants to either abolish or significantly reform the Electoral Commission – the independent organisation that regulates political donations, spending and other areas, and has the power to undertake its own investigations, and fine parties and officials for breaches of the rules, although more serious matters are passed to police.
The Liberal Democrats reckon this is an attempt to prevent the exposure of “embarrassing funding connections to Russian oligarchs” – and This Writer finds it a more convincing argument than Labour’s simple claim that it risks undermining faith in democracy.
The reference to the Russia connection seems most likely because Johnson is the kind of man who acts according to his immediate needs. After the so-called ‘Russia Report’ was released, showing that his government had allowed Russians to launder money in the UK, and had turned a blind eye to Russian influence in UK politics, an attack on the organisation that regulates such things seemed inevitable.
The Tories say the Commission should accept more outside scrutiny or be disbanded. I’m not particularly against that idea, but it raises a significant question: whose scrutiny? It would have to be somebody independent – and I doubt the Tories would accept that.
And they say the Commission should not have new powers to prosecute political organisations and/or politicians. Why not? What would be the problem, if it was done with the agreement of these new outside scrutineers?
This affair could tie itself in a nasty little knot if we’re not careful – and, probably, if the Tories get their way.
Source: Tory plan to scrap election watchdog ‘undermines democracy’ | Conservatives | The Guardian
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The tories don’t want to be held account for anything they do, their solution is to remove all the governing bodies that may make them look bad.
Well I’m left guessing why you haven’t published my comment. above – It agrees with what you have written and the link leads the reader to an article on the wider corruption and undermining of our democratic institutions. What’s the problem?
Why do you keep wasting my time asking why I haven’t approved your comments yet? You know I’m going to have to delete it now, in line with my policy on this.
Sometimes I fall behind on moderating the comments because I am very busy and sometimes unexpected problems turn up and need to be solved as well – just as in everybody else’s life including yours, I am sure.
In future, try to be patient – and less needy.
If the state neuters the institutions of democracy it also castrates the democracy that these institutions were put in place to safeguard and protect..
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/01/no-10-lobby-groups-democracy-policy-exchange