> That's why Count Binface has been able to stand in so many high-profile elections. He has, however, lost his £500 every time, after failing to meet the minimum 5% of votes cast in order for his deposit to be returned.
It would seem he didn't lose his £500 this time...
Instead, a recall petition - requiring 10% of an MP's constituents to sign to then recall - is automatically triggered when an MP is suspended for 10 or more days.
Her recall got nearly 15% of eligible voters which is about half as many votes as she got to win the seat in 2019. Thousands of locals came out solely to sack this MP.
Quick timeline: elected December 2019; spreading covid September 2020; guilty plea August 2022; loses seat July 2023 (10 months before the next general election)
The petition is published for six weeks!
Farage must be very uncomfortable now.
The standards committee doesn't make decisions based on what they think is best. They make decisions based on the rules.
And they are highly likely to open another investigation into the Posh George stuff.
The lesson people should learn from Farage and Reform (which they won't, let's be real) is that the entire Brexit movement and all the subsequent European alt-right movements are incredibly astroturfed. They're the product of wealthy people funding fascism to avoid the electorate talking about economics ie why they're increasingly poorer and why there's increasing wealth and income inequality. Reform wants to direct attention to immigrants. It's pure distraction.
It's the exact same thing in the US. It's immigration here too but it's all the other culture war bullshit issues like trans people too.
What fomented all of this in the UK is that the UK government decided to bail out the banks after 2008 at the expense of taxpayers and then that was used to justify a decade of austerity measures that crippled the economy and wiped out the working class.
It didn't have to be that way. Other countries like Iceland [1] let the banks fail and their economies massively benefitted.
[1]: https://www.worldfinance.com/special-reports/failing-banks-w...
And on top of that you got JK Rowling fueling insane amounts of money into anti trans hate.
With Musk, who is doing similar stunts, I get it because in his warped world view he had IVF to make sure he had male offspring for almost all his children bar the first ones, and his daughter openly defies his will by, well, being his daughter. But what in God's name is the angle Rowling comes from? Who the hell hurt her so much that she's willing to burn everything?
She is every bit as vile a bigot as Musk is, just with less (but still more than enough) money. And on top of that, her alter ego/pen name is male ("Robert Galbraith"), so it's yet another dose of bigotry on top - appearing as a male for... whatever reason, idk.
[1] https://www.advocate.com/news/jk-rowling-anti-trans-organiza...
JKR has probably received more of this abuse than any other woman. She's become a lightning rod for this deranged, abusive male behaviour, simply for advocating for women's sex-based rights and refusing to be intimidated to silence.
there was a nominal price bubble (especially visible in the rent vs buy graph) but rents did not show the same spike, there was no general shortage (as seen in vacancy rates), and since interest rates fell nominal prices went up, and the central bank overcorrected.
https://www.fullstackeconomics.com/p/the-2000s-housing-bubbl...
... the obvious problem is the low productivity of suburbs. spending a lot of money on building them is good for short-term GDP growth, but long-term it's a poor investment compared to the usual recommendations.
Anybody can donate to a political party in the UK so that's how you would do it.
There's no citizenship/residency requirement AFAIK.
Here is his official entry on the register: https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/English/Registrati...
And it's not true that "anybody" can donate. People can donate if they'd be allowed to vote in the UK, which currently includes people who don't live here and so don't care what happens but that might change to some extent. Non-people such as businesses can donate if they are legitimate UK entities with UK registration or whatever as appropriate (so e.g. a UK business you own for no purpose but to fuck with UK politics wouldn't fly, but if you've got a money-losing Californian Wine Importer that's a fun hobby you can make that loss $5000 bigger by having them them donate $5000 to Reform if you like)
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/political-registratio...
Political parties are responsible for checking the source of loans and donations over the value of £500 to ensure they come from permissible sources.
Foreign companies and individuals who are not on the UK electoral register cannot make political donations.
Other countries likely have similar restrictions e.g. New Zealand disallows foreign donations, and the source of larger donations much be known although I'm not sure if public (i.e. no anonymity above $X). Two digit millions is a significant amount in NZ politics.
Perhaps there's an intergalactic mixing service that can be used here to assist in finally solving this hand dryer situation.
Instead of trying to move forwards, we need to look backwards: a root-analysis of the font of hand dryers (beware d'evil Dyson).
Who is to blame: democracy is not the right tool.
probably
but the important thing is that you can't spend that much money (well compared to the USA) for a by-election the maximum you can spend is 180k (if youre a member of a national party the party can spend 54K on your behalf. )
in terms of crowdfunding the rules are pretty clear: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance-candidates-a...
there is quite a high paper trail bar for doing this.
However if you just want ot get your name on the ballot its £500. if you're just pissing about then thats all it costs.
A rule is only a rule if it's enforced.