Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Loss of transparency is the price we pay for Tory/DUP pact
The Electoral Commission are currently engaged in an investigation into spending during the 2016 referendum campaign They believe that there are 'reasonable grounds to suspect an offence may have been committed' in the run up to that plebiscite. No doubt we will see the outcome of that investigation in due course.
However, one investigation that does not appear to be on the cards is into the source of a £425,000 donation to the Democratic Unionist Party, that was spent on wrap-around pro-Brexit advertising in the non-Northern Ireland-based Metro newspaper during the EU referendum. That is because the UK Government has ruled that this donation will be exempt from the rules that apply to everybody else.
As the Independent says, the order that has now been pushed through Parliament means that changes to the rules for the publication of donors to Northern Irish political parties will only apply to donations made after the 1st July 2017, and will not be backdated to 2014 in accordance with previously agreed legislation.
As such the source of the £425,000 donation, the largest to any Northern Irish political party in history, and which has largely been seen as a device through which to donate anonymously to the Brexit campaign, will not be revealed:
The rules were changed on the naming of donors to political parties in the UK in 2000, but Northern Irish political parties were given an exemption, over the security risk it would pose to certain individuals on the list and that it could destabilise the peace process.
Those rules have since been revisited, but Mr Brokenshire’s order will tweak the rules to prevent the source of this large donation, which was spent campaigning on the UK mainland, where the DUP do not field candidates, from being named.
The donation has been named as coming from a group of businessmen called the Constitutional Research Council (CRC), though the ultimate source of their cash has not been confirmed.
£282,000 was spent on a wrap around advertisements on the Metro newspaper, saying “Vote Leave. Take Back Control” under Democratic Unionist Party branding. Some of them money was also paid to a data company linked to the analytics firm who worked for the Brexit campaign, Cambridge Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica is being investigated by the Information Commissioner as part of a wider inquiry into the way voters’ personal data is being captured and exploited in political campaigns.
All in all this decision by the UK Government appears to be a massive favour to their allies in Government. Unfortunately, transparency in politics is the loser as is the integrity of the whole political system.
However, one investigation that does not appear to be on the cards is into the source of a £425,000 donation to the Democratic Unionist Party, that was spent on wrap-around pro-Brexit advertising in the non-Northern Ireland-based Metro newspaper during the EU referendum. That is because the UK Government has ruled that this donation will be exempt from the rules that apply to everybody else.
As the Independent says, the order that has now been pushed through Parliament means that changes to the rules for the publication of donors to Northern Irish political parties will only apply to donations made after the 1st July 2017, and will not be backdated to 2014 in accordance with previously agreed legislation.
As such the source of the £425,000 donation, the largest to any Northern Irish political party in history, and which has largely been seen as a device through which to donate anonymously to the Brexit campaign, will not be revealed:
The rules were changed on the naming of donors to political parties in the UK in 2000, but Northern Irish political parties were given an exemption, over the security risk it would pose to certain individuals on the list and that it could destabilise the peace process.
Those rules have since been revisited, but Mr Brokenshire’s order will tweak the rules to prevent the source of this large donation, which was spent campaigning on the UK mainland, where the DUP do not field candidates, from being named.
The donation has been named as coming from a group of businessmen called the Constitutional Research Council (CRC), though the ultimate source of their cash has not been confirmed.
£282,000 was spent on a wrap around advertisements on the Metro newspaper, saying “Vote Leave. Take Back Control” under Democratic Unionist Party branding. Some of them money was also paid to a data company linked to the analytics firm who worked for the Brexit campaign, Cambridge Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica is being investigated by the Information Commissioner as part of a wider inquiry into the way voters’ personal data is being captured and exploited in political campaigns.
All in all this decision by the UK Government appears to be a massive favour to their allies in Government. Unfortunately, transparency in politics is the loser as is the integrity of the whole political system.
