UK General Election 2017: How EU law will hit British politicians' Facebook fight

Re: Appealing to the individual voter?

ROBO-Appealing to the individual voter?

It is just robocalling and cold calling banks for the 21st century. Quite effective.

IMHO, this poster is a very good fit for the referendum and the last two anglo-saxon elections: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Robot-Movie-Poster-18/dp/B01ANZRTMS

Re: Appealing to the individual voter?

The candidates task is then to persuade the voters to support their vision, not to promise them the impossible.

In your first paragraph, you bemoaned a system in which candidates get themselves elected and then do exactly what they want, regardless of any specific promises. As far as I can see, you're simply proposing a system where the candidates use a wishy-washy "vision" to garner votes, still get to do whatever they want in office, with the added convenience of not having to make up promises they won't keep. How does that help the poor, bemused Welsh hill-billies of Capel Curig?

When they vote for Jezza, because he is "going to create a fairer Britain", what will that mean for them? They've got expensive energy bills because of the last Labour' government's energy policy (continued by the Tories); They've got shite education because Plaid is simply a public sector vested interest party, so neither of those problems will change. Is there some vast inequality between the wealthy elite of Waun Fawr, and the downtrodden of Talybont and Capel Curig that voting for some vague and poorly defined vision will see resolved?

I'd remind you that last time we had a prime minister elected largely on a vision without policies, we got a vacuous socialist liberal, whose legacy was a bankrupted Treasury, a Middle East war that has now been raging for about fifteen years, mass migration that caused a popular revolt over EU membership, energy policy that couples high costs with no reserve margin, a bloated foreign aid programme when we can't even pay for the health services we want, and who started GCHQ's downhill roll into universal surveillance, etc etc. Is that really your idea of an improvement?

Re: Appealing to the individual voter?

....one of the (many) core problems of UK politics - the main parties are only interested in convincing each person to vote for them and put them in power.

Er. That's nothign to do with "politics in this country", it's a fundamental issue with democracy. You'll notice that this section is number 25 in the arricle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_democracy#Manipulation_or_control_of_public_opinion

If we want to clean up politics (and I think most of us do)

For values of "us" meaning "persons who have never bothered to join a party, let alone attend a meeting or deliver some leaflets". Hating on politicians is as easy and as lamebrained as going on about "rip-off energy companies" or "fat cat bankers". If you're a student, you get a free pass to be a naive idealist with no concept of the real world. The rest of us... not so much.

Re: Appealing to the individual voter?

"Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-

I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,

cut a little swathe and lead the people on."

The Greatest Little Whorehouse in Texas

Re: A question

It could be, but it would mean that businesses in the UK would find it very difficult to do business with Europe.

The UK could repeal the EU DP laws (RIPA is a good example of this, it has been rejected by the EU courts and the ECHR several times as being illegal / breaking human rights doctrines) and sent back to the UK Parliament for re-working. Post Brexit the UK government said STFU EU, we'll implement it anyway, even if it breaks human rights conventions in the EU.

That alone will make it hard to do business in Europe post Brexit, if the UK government also castrates data protection law in favour of allowing big corporations to exploit its sheep voters citizens, then there will be next to no chance of UK businesses being able to effectively do business in Europe.

Re: A question

It's saying: look, here are some principles that we, th4e Brits, have signed up to with respect to Data Protection, privacy, processing of data, etc.

One big loophole to any such approach would be if any business could simply offshore its data processing operations and stick two fingers up to local law. So the DPA includes a principle to the effect that if you wish to be compliant, under the DPA, then you proccess only in countries/jurisdictions where data protection regs provide at least as much protection to the individual as they get in the UK.

Now, times that by Europe. The EU worked out a broad position on data protection, which the UK was instrumental in devising, which has since found expression in various DP directives. The result: UK and EU law on data protection are harmonised and businesses don't need to worry, if they are processing data within the EU area, about cross-border transfers. Very handy when one works, as i once did, for businesses with pan-european sales forces and a single central database.

Fast forward to next year: the EU, again, has, courtesy of the GDPR, tightened up on its data protection stance. The UK was involved in discussion of what those regs should be, and agreed to go along with them. The alternative would be opting out, at which point any UK business that processes data for EU companies would lose that business. Instantly.

Re: 2015 Election

Oooh, a potential criminal offence in en El Reg comment... that's a new one!

Bet you didn't know this:

http://www.inbrief.co.uk/media-law/defamation-of-election-candidates/

Five minutes with google comparing the seats where the Corbynistas have been shrieking about fraud with the seats where those 900 votes were distributed would have saved you some embarrassment, not to mention worrying about the law arriving :)

Yes,

And people try to encourage apathy by suggesting to those voting the way they don't want them to that it's a done deal, so there is no need to go and vote.

Compulsory voting would be good.

As would AVS, or at least an option to either say 'vote for this person' or 'vote against this person'

Does "Big Data" take apathy on a rainy day into account on polling day?

Parties have been doing that for decades.Traditionally bad weather was seen as good for the Tories, since their supporters were more likely to have cars, leading Labour to organize buses in poorer areas. These days all parties have armies of car-owning volunteers to take people to the polling stations if they ask.

Could do. Might not though.

Sod it: i'm off back to bed....

Perhaps this explains why they both lied through their teeth in an effort to swing votes?

No, that was because they were both led by politicians.

Re: Politicians do listen

Nah they don't.

How easy would it me to... say...

On the QT, engage an indian company to call on behalf of the opposition all those numbers on the TPS list especially in the key marginals?

I'd probably put a tenner on that swinging the votes.

Is it illegal?

IANAL and that's my cop-out.

If anyone found out, then [see icon]

The Daily Flail would have a field day especially if it was JC's 'momentum' team that did it.

Re: preferences

As a small-c conservative, large-C cynic I would rather nothing emanated from Buffoon Johnson.

Me too. Including exhaled breath.

Re: All your data belong to us

Ah, Facebook - that well-known seething pit of pro-Trump, pro-Brexit alt-rightism!

I'd be curious to know how many people switched their opinions in the run-up to the election, but couldn't say why. My guess would be almost no-one. I doubt even the explicit arguments made by the campaigns influenced many people. People already had their opinions and kept them.

I find it slightly amusing that the guardian, so much in favour of having our lives governed by unelected foreigners should write such a lengthy expose on a conspiracy regarding how our lives are being run by, er, unelected foreigners. Whether you think that is good, bad or indifferent, the lack of awareness speaks of a complete irony detection failure or extreme partisanship, turning the news into the image of American news.