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Comment by epistasis | Hacker News Reader

What are campaign finance laws like in the UK? Can he crowdsource this to offset his cost? I live in the US and am a citizen, with no connection to the UK, but this hand dryer situation at the Crown & Treaty really needs attention and nobody else is willing to deal with it.

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> Can he crowdsource this to offset his cost

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.

He's clearly getting his £500's worth even when he was losing it. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Well he's clearly getting funding from somewhere. Look at how his bin has improved over the years!

In theory quite strict, in practice multiple parties have been caught breaking them and nothing really gets done.

A rule is only a rule if it's enforced.

The Representation of the People Bill currently going through parliament will make the rules stricter and enforcement easier. Fines are being increased too, with the maximum being £500k rather than £20k today.

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4080

> What are campaign finance laws like in the UK? Can he crowdsource this to offset his cost?

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...

Well, you linked to his registration entry but that's not donations. In fact he doesn't have any donations so maybe that's why you were confused. If you look for a political entity which does have donations, like Reform, you can see £50M over the years since it was formed (then as the "Brexit Party")

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)

Not quite. The problem is that rich people can find ways around the laws.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/political-registratio...

No, anybody can't donate to a political party in the UK:

  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.

See https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/rules-fu...

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.

So you're telling me that < £500 won't be a problem...

Perhaps there's an intergalactic mixing service that can be used here to assist in finally solving this hand dryer situation.

Distributed yak shaving to solve a problem that shouldn't exist.

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.

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