The relevant regulations forbid political parties making "wholly automated unsolicited marketing calls to any subscriber who has not consented", and SNP MSP Joe FitzPatrick has called for an investigation into automated calls received by his constituents from the Labour Party's Dundee branch, and he cites a pledge by the Information Commissioner to take action against any parties in breach of the regulations.
In turn, Labour has accused the SNP of "smear tactics" and denies that the calls fall foul of the relevant law:
It was conceded that, while it is a requirement that political parties should not make such calls to encourage people to vote Labour or to gather support for Labour (this is marketing), the Privacy and Electronic Regulations Act 2003 makes it explicitly permissible to use this method to carry out an opinion poll (this is market research).Sounds a bit like Labour breaching the spirit of the regulations but trying to defend their conduct on the basis that it complies with the letter - now, where have we heard that before? Perhaps in the current climate political parties should be concentrating on adhering to the spirit of the law rather than concocting solutions to usurp it.
The spokesperson said, “Dundee Labour’s calls at no point encouraged people to vote for Labour or against any other political party. They simply asked people how they would vote if there was a general election tomorrow, and whether they would prefer a Labour or Tory government. It is sad the SNP is reduced to this kind of embarrassing smear story.”
Meanwhile, Mr FitzPatrick describes Labour's unsolicited calls as "outrageous behaviour". If this is true then it would be interesting to hear his views on more important issues, but it's perhaps safe to assume that Mr FitzPatrick has difficulty getting to sleep at night.
3 comments:
Eh? Labour has accused the SNP of smear tactics ? Labour are the ones who broke the rules and if anyone knows a thing or 2 about smear tactics then look no further than that lot.
Every day i grow further and further away from Labour, they realy are the pits.
If it is an automated call they are breaking the rules - the SNP should know because we were done for trying the same thing in back in 2005 (I think - may have been earlier)!
At that point there was no hard and fast ruling on it - the complaint made about the SNP using automated calls was, as I recall, a test case. The Information Commissioner ruled that the SNP were breaking the rules by using an automated call system.
Perhaps this explains why Joe Fitzpatrick thinks it is outrageous behaviour! When the SNP did it, it was a first. I guess the campaign team knew they were testing the limits of what was allowable. But having got the answer - no, it's not allowed - the SNP stopped doing it.
Good thing too as in my opinion such tactics just annoy voters.
Yes, I don't really know what Labour hopes to achieve with this - maybe if there's some kind of subliminal message intended, or perhaps if the voter chooses the 'wrong' option then they're canvassed by more explicity legal methods.
But it was when I received an unsolicited, recorded call from Alex Salmond a few years ago that I withdrew my support from nationalisims ;0)
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