Canvassing For Livingstone
- 3 Mar 08, 02:13 PM
I am amused to see that several prominent artists have donated works to Ken Livingstone鈥檚 re-election campaign for London mayor, among them Banksy, Anthony Gormley, Jeremy Deller and Marc Quinn. The works are due to be auctioned this Thursday at the Aquarium Gallery. A new form of canvassing, I suppose.
I trust, however that Mr Livingstone and the Labour Party will be registering these donations with the Electoral Commission. So far there鈥檚 no sign on the Electoral Commission register that Ken Livingstone is even running for London Mayor, let alone of any donations to his campaign.
I was also interested to see that the followed up my story on Friday about Labour failing to register with the Commission the cut-price work performed by their advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi. In line with what Saatchi鈥檚 Communications Director Eleanor Conroy told Newsnight last November, she told the Sunday Times on Friday that the work is 鈥渉eavily discounted because we are so keen to work on it and so passionate about it 鈥 We give them a massive discount.鈥 But later Ms Conroy changed her tune, as she did with Newsnight, and said 鈥渋t is not a discount鈥. All very odd.
But the law is clear. And discount of more than 10% has to be registered as a donation. And 鈥渕assive鈥 sounds to me, like it was more than 10%.
Comments Post your comment
PEACE AGREEMENT IN KENYA
It seems a shame that the Peace Agreement in Kenya and the jubilation on the streets has gone unnoticed by the press.
It happened on Thursday and I have not heard it mentioned anywhere in the televised media, yet when it was bad news and there were was violence and strife, it was everywhere.
No wonder the public's image of Africa is stereotyped and negative.
Kenya really needs the tourists back to strengthen it's economy again and the negative publicity without the positive is no help at all.
Complain about this post
Surely it would depend on why the discount was in place. If the discount was because Saatchi and Saatchi wanted to support New Labour politically then yes. But if their discount is because they believe having the account lends prestige to them as a company and its worth discounting to keep the account, then surely not?
Complain about this post
Prestigious working for New Labour?
Complain about this post
Was it eight years ago that I was such a strong supporter of this Politician; and to be fair the initial work which he has done vis Tfl, and congestion was helpful.
However, they do not learn, nor monitor the developments, as things have become dead-locked again, even after expansion West. [Which incidentally is very poorly advertised and signposted.] In 2005/6 they mucked-up the timings, waiting at lights periods, for traffic-lights, right across London; and possibly country-wide, as far as I can tell. I find there are clear crossings, empty of pedestrians for 10-20 seconds during a sequence. There is some of your congestion or lack of through-put.
As a non-driver, Livingstone has taken his spleen-out upon us-drivers. We are required to pay for an ever increasing percentage of gross domestic Government expenditure because the slight-of-hand dupes 'joe public', into believing there hasn't been a TAX increase. Extortionate parking charges; that's if you can find a place to park and the Russians , or Americans, or Nigerians, or CD plates, (who refuse to pay), haven't got there first; extortionate timings too, until 2030hrs in parts of London.
Not enough revenue is raised from speed-cameras apparently, which they put the spin-upon with terminology re-naming them as 'safety cameras'. Now we have average-travel-distance cameras, to check whether there is any chance they can find you have exceeded the speed limit on 'AVERAGE'.
That may not be soley down to Livingstone, since it is country-wide. What the rest of us drivers have to suffer because Livingstone 'failed his driving test twenty times'. Does anyone remember these average-safety-cameras being legislated for; ie, our permission to install? Very slyly done in my opinion. The Department of Transport has more stringent rules now than twenty/forty years ago when ABS braking systems hadn't been invented. What is more, the roads are wider - three and four lanes exiting the metropolis at forty miles per hour, frequently. If only! Why not minimum speeds for different lanes? Each lane is monitored now!
To me anyone is better than Livingstone; who incidentally, takes on the physical persona in mannerisms, of the old rigid, East-German Head-of-State, Honecker; "was he ever Mayor of E-Berlin?"
Complain about this post
The "when to declare a discount" rule discussed above could be applied to donations also. If I am making a simple donation it should be declared but if I am trying to increase my prestige and receive a peerage it really need not be mentioned at all.
Complain about this post
Banksy
Bank
Bank(s) more of one of them
Posted it! Great!
mmmmmmmmmm
I tried to post this on Friday, maybe it fits here somewhere,
best wishes
Bob
Complain about this post