Labour is deliberately mis-leading the public when it says that the laws prohibiting treating are likely to go, says Annabel Young MP. “No such proposal is currently before Parliament. The rules against buying votes with food and drink remain in place and have the support of Parliament.”

A Select Committee considered this issue this year and rejected any change to the treating laws. The Committee was considering a Bill which had arisen from the post-election review after the 1996 election.

“This response by a multi-Party Committee of Parliament is a clear warning to the Labour Party that the voters will judge harshly any Party that attempts to buy votes with free food or drink.”

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>