Electoral Law Breaches

[steveL]

It appears that neither the Tories or The Labour Party have registered themselves as campaign groups over the Mayoral referendum which they are required to do under electoral law if they intend to take part in any campaign activity such as publishing and distributing leaflets.

It also looks very likely that the '£1m' leaflet published by labour will be reported to the Police as a similar breach of electoral law as the veracity of the claim has yet to be proven. If the referendum goes Labour's way then we could be looking at a re-run with Labour having to pay for it.

[for fawkes sake]

I think we crossed the Rubicon on these matters some time ago. There used to be unstated rules of engagement applied to council business both inside and outside of the council chamber. At some point in time, those unstated rules were ditched in favour of a mixture of self-enrichment and unfettered megalomania.
Some people now believe that's it's perfectly OK to say or doing anything in the pursuit of power for power's sake and it will carry on that way until someone says No.

[mk1]

Better watch out. A revelation like that usualy results in a renewed attack.
Can anyone check if the lights are still on at Manor Residents........................

[steveL]

That probably depends on whether or not they have managed to pay the bill.  Perhaps they have, I gather Labour were paying £60 a shot to deliver their '£1m' leaflet to the locals.

[mk1]

I would have thought Mr Moore would have killed this one stone dead by now..................................

[fred c]

Surprise Surprise........ No not really, the last Mayoral Election had a number of discrepancies under electoral law, those discrepancies were brought to the notice of the relevant people within HBC & they were virtually ignored.

Those election offences should have, if they had been reported in the proper manner  by the relevant officials, led to the disqualification of some of the Candidates in that Mayoral Election.

[SRMoore]

I would have thought Mr Moore would have killed this one stone dead by now..................................

No need for me to "kill" any story Mk1. If the Conservative group had breached electoral law then Steve would have said he'd reported us to the police too.

[mk1]

No need for me to "kill" any story Mk1. If the Conservative group had breached electoral law then Steve would have said he'd reported us to the police too.

A simple statement along the lines of:

The Conservatives have registered as a campaign group for the Mayorial election.  There is no truth in the claim we 'forgot' to register.

would have been better.

[steveL]

I merely point out that as of Monday last, no party had registered themselves as campaigning on the Mayoral issue.

[SRMoore]

Taken from the Hartlepool Mail referendum coverage section of their website.

Comment From steve latimer 
High Tax Hartlepool supports keeping the Mayoral system because the people should elect the Hartlepool's leader not 21 councillors.

Has High Tax Hartlepool registered to campaign on the mayoral issue?

I merely point out that as of Monday last, no party had registered themselves as campaigning on the Mayoral issue.

You didn't just 'merely' point that out Steve, you accused the Conservative Party of breaching electoral law. Please provide the evidence of this or kindly retract your accusation.

[mk1]

A simple 'yes' or 'no' please Shane.
It is not a hard question so why keep dancing around the  issue.
If HTH have  messed up as well then so what?.

[steveL]

Bit of a silly post Shane.

If you are going to get leaflets printed and distributed through people's letter boxes, particularly if you are a political party, then you need to register your campaign - up until Monday neither Labour or the Tories had done so though they may have done so since.

HTH no more needs to do so than any other media publication which has a point of view. You need to talk to your leaders. I suspect that because it was a referendum and not a local council election that they didn't see the need to register - if so, they were wrong.

[SRMoore]

Did the letter actually tell people to vote for or against the mayoral position?

My initial point stands. If you were confident the Conservative Party had breached electoral law you would have reported us to the police along with Labour.

[steveL]

You're no better than the Labour sheep Shane - just a Tory one. You defend everything Tory without question - you need to have a long chat with Ray Akers-Belcher some day.

[SRMoore]

I am not blindly following anything Steve.
It's about you making a serious accusation against Hartlepool Conservatives. Now you either provide evidence and report it to the police to investigate or you retract your accusation and publish an apology as any 'media organisation' worth its salt would do.