How terribly quaint. Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire today…
The Independent reports that former British immigration minister Phil Woolas “lost his seat as an MP today after an election court ruled that he knowingly made false statements about an opponent in May’s general election.”
Bloomberg notes Woolas was guilty of “an illegal practice” by making statements “he had no reasonable grounds for believing were true and did not believe were true.”
The Independent reports that Woolas, a Labour MP, “is to be barred from the Commons for three years and the election contest for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat [will be] re-run.” His crime:
His campaign team was said to have set out to “make the white folk angry” by depicting an alleged campaign by Muslims to “take Phil out”.
Thank God we, the people of the United States of America, live in a land where there is no such need for laws to protect the electorate from the sort of dirty, disingenuously-divisive, knowingly-false, racially-based fear-mongering that might otherwise plague our totally free and respectable democratic elections!
[Hat-tip @emptywheel on the Twitters.]
This is a dream come true story. It’s hard to believe such sanity exists just across the ocean.
This is exactly the kind of consciousness shift I feel we’re working for here at Bradblog. Bit of an uphill slog at the moment. But what a beautiful goal to pursue and create! And to hear of it actually occurring somewhere! Great jars of sweetness!!! Inspiring tale. Thanks.
wow. wish that were us.
Not something we should like to see here. Let the voters be the ultimate judge when the guy comes up for reelection. Or the law should be changed to allow a recall of the pol if a certain threshold is met with petitions from voters.
It’s a dangerous call to let election commission bureaucrats overturn the will of the people on the basis of a false statement made by the winning pol in the race.
I disagree, it is a great idea. If they intentionally lie about their opponents, they should not be allowed to serve.
I have spent the better part of tonight trying to find where Massachusetts chronicles their “computer issue” that the had during the elections yesterday. Multiple voters were told at the polls to place their ballots and their votes would be registered later on due to “computer issues.” I still cannot find any documentation of this issue online, and have still to find a person(and I am a young liberal) who has posted on facebook that they are in agreement with the current votes. Even while riding the commuter rail, not one person has said that they have voted democratic. Either way, I don’t care, since I know that the voting system is beyond corrupt, but when a lot of the state votes republican and a few vote democrat( but their votes are worth more due to polling issues) it forces those of us with a neutral opinion to take sides. everyone’s vote should count equally. The corruption in the American voting process is nothing new; jut see how many dead soldiers voted in the post civil war elections. But in 2010 America, we should be beyond that. I urge every MA citizen whose vote was held to be entered later to check with the polling station to be sure that your vote was actually registered. Democrat or Republican, I don’t care. But fair is fair.
No doubt that if we still had Alberto Gonzales as our Attorney General, he’d offer the same view of UK electoral honesty as he applied to the Geneva Conventions–“quaint!”
lol
Not nearly as starry-eyed about the Brits, sadly. They are quickly becoming the most ‘safety-camera’d’ people in the world, have observers watching people on the street, with loudspeakers to admonish wrongdoers!, and are no longer permitted to protest in a political manner. All done under war-crime practitioner former PM Tony whats-is-name, Bush’s poodle. (Sorry, it’s early in the a.m.). Sooo, don’t look for true leadership there. We’re gonna have to fend for ourselves, get rid of the damned electronic vote-theft machines, institute publicly funded campaigns, and take this country into the future by old-fashioned means-STANDING UP, SPEAKING OUT, AND STAYING EDUCATED. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. Have a nice one, all. I saw a rainbow yesterday. Funny how rain and sunshine work together so well…
Holy crap! If we did that we wouldn’t have a Congress.
Amazing! The fascist Twits come out looking good! Makes me even more ashamed of my native U$. Europe is generally a very nice place to live…
I live in Germany having being born in England, and schooled in NY.I must say that we have a low tolerance for our elected officials doing what is normal electioneering for Americans. We would just never have a politician of a Michelle Bachmann ilk. Unless of course she belonged to a Racist party.