uk's new gagging laws

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 27 Sep 2013, 15:09

Have a look here.

The government wants to stop the unions and the big left-wing campaigns spending money in the election to defeat their candidates. It's that simple.

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 27 Sep 2013, 17:39

These proposals are a serious threat to free speech and our democracy.

the_lyniezian · Post by **the_lyniezian** » 28 Sep 2013, 17:37

Why I wonder are we forced to watch a Youtube video in order to have this law explained fully to us? What happened to text? What about people who have slow internet connections or don't particularly want to fill the entire house with the noise?

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 28 Sep 2013, 21:01

the_lyniezian wrote:Why I wonder are we forced to watch a Youtube video in order to have this law explained fully to us? What happened to text? What about people who have slow internet connections or don't particularly want to fill the entire house with the noise?

Your best bet would be to get hold of "download helper", download the video off you-tube and then watch it on your PC after downloading. That way, you wont suffer with any lag on the video.

JavaScriptDonkey · Post by **JavaScriptDonkey** » 29 Sep 2013, 20:10

I have little desire to wade through the opinions of campaign groups on this proposal - has anyone actually read the text of the bill or are we all to rely on 'feelings'?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 29 Sep 2013, 23:38

nexus wrote:These proposals are a serious threat to free speech and our democracy.

It's scary. Absolutely disgraceful, and pisses all over the proud history of all those people that fought to establish the democratic freedoms we currently have.

Unfortunately, far too many people are sleepwalking to prevent this happening. We need a massive public outcry against it, of the sort that prevented the sell-off of the publicly owned woodlands, but it is highly unlikely to happen.

woodburner · Post by **woodburner** » 30 Sep 2013, 00:39

Retreat

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 22 Oct 2013, 17:05

Have your say on the gagging law.

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 22 Oct 2013, 19:42

Done, cheers for posting that Em

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 20 Nov 2013, 12:10

The US evidently doesn't like gagging orders - a new bill actually wants you to protest! See here.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), is broad legislation designed to make it much easier for oil and gas companies to obtain permission to drill on public lands.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 28 Jan 2014, 14:09

Advert in today's papers

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 29 Jan 2014, 07:30

I wanted to let you know straight away. I'm afraid we lost the gagging law vote in the House of Lords this evening. That's it - it's going to become law.

It couldn't have been closer. On the final vote, 245 Lords voted in favour and 245 against. Unfortunately the rules mean that in the case of a tie, the government gets its way.

Personally I feel pretty devastated about this. I'm worried about what it means for the future of 38 Degrees. More importantly, I'm worried about what it means for the future of democracy, and what it tells us about the state of British politics.

But I also feel proud of everything 38 Degrees members did together to fight this. I hope you do too.

There will be a lot of thinking and discussion to be done in the coming days. 38 Degrees members will need to pull together to think about how to fight this terrible law. And we'll need to work out how we can keep standing up for all we believe in - despite the restrictions the government is trying to impose.

But right now, I feel sure of one thing. We won't give up.

Sorry I'm not emailing with better news, and thank you for everything you've done,

David

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 29 Jan 2014, 09:59

That's another one to add to your list, the outline of which is roughly thus:

"You get my vote if you promise (in public) to:

(a) Repeal these laws...

(b) Bring in these measures..."

Go on, start a list today, hang it by the door for when they come looking for votes. Do they still do that in GB? Knock on doors, that is? Or is it all 'social media' campaigning now?

johnhemming · Post by **johnhemming** » 30 Jan 2014, 15:24

The Act as it now is about transparency about what people spend their money on when campaigning in the General Election not what people say.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 31 Jan 2014, 13:02

Gosh! Do you actually believe that, John?