Electoral Fraud investigation

Well done anno. There are loads more allegations flying around on Twitter e.g. paying for local newspaper advertorials, cost of shipping some republican campaigners over to help in key marginals etc. All other parties are probably hoping everyone has followed the rules in their party

In the Council elections following the founding of the SDP, the Tory agent called us a 'bunch of bloody amateurs'. We got our own back by getting them fined for false declaration of election expenses.

Plot thickens re allegation on BBC RADIO4 Today programme - in Torbay - won by a slim margin, there was an additional pro-Tory mail shot that may not have been declared in the expenses return.
To understand why this stuff is serious we only have to look to the USA where, IMO, democracy is distorted by the lack of control of election expenditure and the vast donations by lobby groups (the national gun lobby for one) to political campaigns and parties.

This is how serious it could be.

"Dozens of Tory MPs face accusations that they illegally overspent in the 2015 general election campaign by failing to declare costs associated with the Conservative campaign “battle buses”. If the allegations are true, the MPs and their agents could face a year in jail and/or an unlimited fine, as well as a three-year ban on holding elected office – potentially triggering by-elections across the country and losing the Conservatives their majority in parliament."

Lincolnshire now investigating. That's nine police forces altogether.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/12/conservatives-court-campaign-spending-details-electoral-commission

It hasn't blown over yet , then. Going to be taken to court over it.

There are always people - whether in the south, north, east or west - who will look down their noses at people living in different areas. I think they are the minority and it isn't very productive to focus on small-minded people like that.

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/suspend-from-parliament-conservative-mps-suspected-of-election-fraud

Petition to stop those MPs who are being investigated from voting on any parliamentary business.

www.channel4.com/news/labour-mp-new-devon-cornwall-pcc-should-not-take-oath
I agree. Not until the fraud investigation is over - and maybe not then, depending on the outcome.

I am half Northern. So they told me.

It's in me blood. [proud]

Yeah! What about all that lot in between?

Oh yes. So that's what SSE stands for. I have wondered. Vaguely.

See their vans around, though.

Scottish and Southern Energy I think
Must skip the geographical areas in between

Didn't Southern become Southern and Scottish?

Got privatised.

More likely to be leccie I suppose.

We used to have a Southern Electricity Board. Dunno what happened to them.

I thought it was a gas company.

Before I get accused of lying, that should have been "lived" not "living" as I now live in the east.

Are you a southerner, Jalima?
No
I merely questioned the naming of the project rather than its concept.

Has anyone actually said the North is better?

Will you admit to it being different?

I am also from the North, living in the South, never had any prejudiced whatsoever. Quite the opposite in fact, I get prejudice from a few Northerners because I live in the South.

How strange, I am from the North and have never experienced any prejudice living in the South ( about people from 'oop North) none at all.
'Northern values'? No different to Southern, Eastern, Western or central values.
Let us not make out that the North is better in some indefinable way, because it isn't.

My granddaughter has been at Salford university, and has just got her first teaching job in Stockport.
But being from the north anyway, we didn't have those prejudices.
When I was talking about the powerhouse closing down, I meant at Knottingley, just off the A1.

It is, but the Northern Powerhouse is supposed to include Cumbria, Yorkshire and the North East. You wouldn't think so at the moment.
The man in charge is the MP for Stockton South; that's the only sop to the North East.
Yes, I've been to Tatton. My husband once worked over there for Taylor Woodrow, and was put up in a hotel in Knutsford for a month. The family were still living in Peterborough, fortunately, because they closed the office down and told him he would have to work in London after six months.
Talking about Tatton, just been reading this.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/05/09/will-george-osborne-survive-the-june-24-reshuffle/