Election communications

Wed 22 May 2019, 14:33 (last edited on Wed 22 May 2019, 14:36)

Anyway, whether you want it or not, you should all have had a leaflet from the Lib Dems either yesterday or today, because a bunch of dedicated local residents who care very much about this election have flogged around the town delivering them in their spare time.  Thanks to all of them, and thanks to everyone who supports the Lib Dems at each election here, and let's hope our efforts are rewarded tomorrow with a good result for the Remain parties.

Wed 22 May 2019, 13:27

Thanks Michael.

Really interesting stuff.

The GDPR did (or was meant to) give data subjects (PIIs) rights.  It's up to individuals whether to choose to exercise those rights.

Personally, I have a simple way of dealing with party election material.  It either goes in the waste paper bin, or if electronic, is deleted with a single mouse click. 

Wed 22 May 2019, 12:46 (last edited on Wed 22 May 2019, 12:58)

To simplify a fairly complex set of rules:

UK legislation allows parties in national and European elections to send one free mailout to every registered voter. The parties usually vary their material by target group.

All they know about each voter, from the Electoral Register they're allowed access to, is…

Long post - click to read full text

Wed 22 May 2019, 12:08 (last edited on Wed 22 May 2019, 12:10)

For the sake of balance, (and with no political axe to grind), I'd like to report that my husband has had a personally addressed mailing from the Brexit party (but not from UKIP) and I've had a personally addressed one from the LibDems! We’ve also had one addressed to 'the Taylor family' from the LibDems. I suspect everybody is trying to read too much into who gets personally mailed and who doesn’t.

Wed 22 May 2019, 10:20

Thank you Hannen - the Guardian has also thoughtfully printed information about access to the restricted part of the electoral roll for political parties.  Someone in UKIP/Brexit Party has gone through the closed electoral roll and extracted the names of some women and many young adults and sent them a mailing.  I wonder how many men have been sent a personally addressed mailing from these parties?  Is it the same mailing for us women over 60 and the young adults I wonder?  Given that the Brexit Party is a Company not a political party I suppose it must be UKIP that has developed the mailing list from the closed electoral roll because hopefully the Brexit Party shouldn't be allowed access to it.

I mention it because a lot of people got very upset at being encouraged to believe 'false news' because of personally targeted mailing.  

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/20/european-elections-2019-am-i-registered-to-vote-and-why-am-i-getting-those-leaflets

Wed 22 May 2019, 09:42 (last edited on Wed 22 May 2019, 09:43)

Alice, all political parties have access to the electoral roll.  That might be why some communications are addressed to you personally.

There is useful guidance from the ICO about the use of data in political campaigns here:  https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/be-data-aware/political-campaigning-practices-data-analytics/

We all have rights under the Data Protection legislation, see:

Be aware of your rights under data protection law

You have a number of strong rights under data protection law. The rights likely to be most relevant to political campaigning practices are your right to get copies of your data and your right to object to the use of your data.

So you can ask the Conservatives or whoever what data they hold about you.  They have 14 days to respond, and if they don't they can be fined by the ICO.

Any email must provide a contact address for the "responsible" person in the organisation, and give you the right to unsubscribe.  If such information is not provided then you can report them to the ICO who will investigate and possibly fine.

Wed 22 May 2019, 08:11 (last edited on Wed 22 May 2019, 08:17)

I think, Nicola Leyland, that in 52 years of reading election communications, I have learned some discernment! But reading them still helps me to make up my mind who should have my vote... and/or who shouldn't.

Tue 21 May 2019, 21:20

I'm happy to receive all election material.  The material I received from Labour, the Greens & the LibDems was not addressed to me personally.  The material I received from UKIP, Brexit Party & an email from the Conservatives was addressed to me personally.  

 We have complained before on this forum that people have been upset and misled by targeted information and I am pointing out which parties are personalising their election messages.  I'm also pointing out that UKIP and the Brexit Party appear to be sharing a mailing list - one might think there was no difference between the two parties.

Tue 21 May 2019, 13:33

Angus B, I really hope that you are discerning in your reading of the leaflets. Some parties have presented lie after lie and are still doing so; to believe their electioneering would be a dire error of judgement. (and seems to be the main reason that Brexit has become the poison chalice that it now is, and therefore the reason we have a zombie government taking our taxes, but not doing their duties)

Tue 21 May 2019, 09:21

Maybe I'm alone in Charlbury but I welcome all election communications as they help me to know how I should cast my vote; I will not vote for a party that has not sent me one. How else do people know what each party stands for?

Tue 21 May 2019, 08:52

I hadn't known that political parties are exempt from Data Protection legislation but I feel that the companies that sell the mailing lists to the political parties are not exempt, e.g. Cambridge Analytica, Aaron Banks fined for his inappropriate use of his business mailing lists.  Who compiled the local Conservative Party email list I wonder and why did they imagine that was an appropriate thing to do?

Now I'm hearing and seeing on social media - that young people are also being targeted by UKIP & Brexit with individually addressed election material whilst their parents are not.  Others have drawn attention to the fact that these two organisations are using the same mailing list.  Following the money seems very difficult these days when the trail disappears overseas, so into the (recycling) bin it goes.  Let us hope that the ICO has noticed this too.

Mon 20 May 2019, 20:57

We've had all the leafleats but only one party had it personally addressed. That is not cheap... Follow the money. It'd be interesting to see if ICO finds anything tomorrow, but probably not. 

Mon 20 May 2019, 19:04 (last edited on Mon 20 May 2019, 19:05)

Alice, I'm afraid that you are not immune.

"In the interest of democracy" (do we really live in one?!)  political parties are exempt from Data Protection legislation and can market at will, unless you have told them that you do not want to be subjected to their "spam".  See .pdf below.  (If you are so inclined).

I just chuck it all in the (recycling) bin.

I agree - there's a lot of money coming from somewhere to fund all this paperwork.    Money that would be better spent helping those in need, the NHS etc.

But what would I know?

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1589/promotion_of_a_political_party.pdf

Mon 20 May 2019, 15:04

So far, I have received an email from the local Conservative Party.  I'm not aware of having ever given them our email address and they have not asked for permission to keep it.  Then I got a smart, contentless, personally addressed leaflet from the Brexit Party.  Are they targeting women over 60? I was quite pleased that they got their targeted mail so badly wrong in my case.  This morning I get a smaller leaflet from UKIP - the same format of personal address, same type print and layout.  Both leaflets had a long printing reference number - I would have liked to compare it with the Brexit Party reference but I put it in recycling.  I wonder who is declaring the mailing list costs on their election expenses?  Where has the mailing list coming from?  What a lot of money UKIP & the Brexit Party have.