Brexit party’s targeted Facebook ads aim to turn Labour voters against EU election candidates
The sheer, bloody-minded stupidity of this is breathtaking.
At a time when we have all been warned that political organisations have been trying to influence the outcome of UK elections – in defiance of electoral law – by buying adverts on the social media that can only be seen by their targets, this is exactly what Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party has done.
Adverts of this kind have been widely criticised because they do not clearly state the identity of the people or organisations that fund them – this is a requirement of UK electoral law and it means that political organisations may dodge spending restrictions.
It also means foreign organisations – possibly even other nations’ government – may interfere in UK politics. Who is paying for these Brexit Party adverts?
And of course the great threat of targeted adverts is that they may spread false information (although that doesn’t seem the case in the instances above).
In any case, it seems likely the decision to run these dark ads is a huge error by the Brexit Party.
It opens Mr Farage’s new outfit up to allegations of corruption in the run-up to the EU elections.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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If they’re doing political advertising shouldn’t they be registered as a political party? They don’t seem to have done that yet.
The Brexit Party was registered with the Electoral Commission 5 February 2019
Looks like the work of Lynton Crosby again.
I haven’t seen a single item from the brexit party on facebook that is directly attributed to brexit party advertising so if they are spending money it isn’t getting through.
These measures would have been SO useful in the 2014 Scottish IndyRef. The UK Government breached the Electoral Commission rules by firstly, failing to ever outline their plan for a YES vote, which they were leally required to do and secondly by breaching ‘Purdah’ by making the now infamous ‘Vow’ widely publicised by ‘The Daily Record’ and signed on behal of the sitting government by then Prime Minister David Cameron as well as the opposition leader and leader of the LibDems.
It would ALSO have been useful against Alistair Carmichael MP when he was the Secy of State for Scotland in the Tory/LibDem Coalition just prior to the GE. Remember the ‘leak’ where Nicola Sturgeon was reported by The Telegraph as saying to the French Ambassador that she would rather the Tories won, than Labour (something UTTERLY unforgiveable in Scotland)
Firstly Carmichael denied being the source of the ‘leak’ but subsequently it was discovered it was his assistant who phone the paper from HIS office, STILL he denied knowledge. Then he was forced to admit not only that he knew, but had authorised this contact (it’s aim was to win votes from SNP obviously and doing stuff like this IS actually against the law) The public was genuinely doubtful that the remark was even TRUE. Both the French Ambassador and Sturgeon denied that it was, but it was still touted as true by the papers AND it’s source (Carmichael)
In a rare move Carmichael was brough up on a private prosecution by a few of his constituents with the aim of having his personal election win overturned and having the seat rerun as a by election. And although the case was lost, some more interesting facts came out. Carmichael was forced to admit to the court that he’d lied about not knowing about the ‘leak’ as he had ordered it and arranged it. He had also lied about the conversation itself, The story was that it was a government memo containing the information of an overheard conversation. No such memo existed and there WAS no such conversation. He admitted fabricating this to gain advantage (the entire crux of the prosecution’s case) He admitted lying about all of this whilst acting as a Cabinet Minister and using this position to hoodwink the press into believing that he had access to a memo which didn’t exist (except in his own imagination)
He got away with it because…politicians are ALLOWED to lie in elections, even to THIS EXTENT. That was the actual judgement.
Now, if you’ve seen the Scottish Courts in action over anything SNP or Independence related you’ll quickly realise that there is no actual sense of justice. You can WIN your case but actually lose at the same time (for more read up on the facts in the Kezia Dugdale libel case, the judgement found she HAD libelled an independence blogger BUT, essentially because she is stupid, the rules don’t apply to her – sounds unbelievable but honestly, READ IT, you couldn’t make this up!)
Maybe then, maybe when they start with THEMSELVES we MIGHT get an election or referendum that hasn’t been interfered with, one where they haven’t cheated.
Look for wards with 100% turnout too, even the high 90s. Look for old people’s homes where EVERY SINGLE RESIDENT VOTED by postal ballot. Even those with Alzheimers. Look for party reps trawling the homes like this in the weeks before and ‘helpfully’ filling out the forms for the old people, even when they’re unconscious. Home grown election interference is far greater than ever we hear about. Look at the ‘Battle Bus’ scandals. It had been ongoing for years! All parties did it, using central funds to campaign in marginal, none could report the other as they all did it, it took Channel 4 to expose it.
Our politics is rotten to the core and blind eyes are turned. It’s not the Russians we need to worry about, it’s US…
That’s all very interesting – and it’s news to me that Alistair Carmichael’s memo didn’t exist. Can you point me to evidence showing that, please?