Norwich City Council abuses terrorism laws

David Campbell Bannerman has criticised Norwich City Council for using the regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to send undercover investigators into pubs in the city to make sure they aren't flouting the smoking ban.

I personally detest smoking and am more than happy with the ban.  I'd be even more happy if smoking was banned in public places so non-smokers - particularly those with asthma or other respiratory problems - don't have to breathe in other peoples' smoke when they're out and about.  I know that's not very libertarian of me but that's my opinion.

However, the issue here isn't the smoking ban; it's Norwich City Council's abuse of a law that was intended to help them investigate terrorism and serious and organised crime and their criminal waste of taxpayers money.  RIPA was passed to find evidence of people committing serious crimes, not people smoking in pubs or even tracking down people with outstanding library fines.

It could have been different of course, the people of Norwich could have elected Glenn Tingle last year instead of the rather scary looking Tory candidate, Chloe Smith.  UKIP believes in a small state, freedom of the individual and in stopping councils and other busy-bodies from abusing their powers.  Glenn Tingle would have taken Norwich City Council to task over their abuse of anti-terrorism laws and wasting taxpayers money but Chloe Smith ... not a peep.

Wroxham by-election results

Glenn Tingle came a respectable third in the Wroxham by-election yesterday the Conswervatives and - bizarrely - the None of the Above Party Lib Dims who won with a comfortable majority.

It's disappointing not to have won - especially with an excellent candidate like Glenn Tingle - but it does confirm UKIP's place as the only real opposition to the LibLabCon. The results also confirm, once again, that despite the BBC's attempts to promote them above their station, the Greens are an electoral irrelevance and the BBC's decision to give fourth party status to the Greens in the Norwich North by-election was unjustified.

The full results are:

Party	Votes	%
Lib Dim	961	62%
Cons	346	23%
UKIP	134	9%
Green	50	3%
Liebour	46	3%

To clarify the "bizarre" comment above with the election of the Lib Dim candidate: he is a 19 year old full time student at the University of York, 186 miles and 4 and a quarter hours drive away. And he's been elected to a local council. Like I said, bizarre.

BBC response to complaint about anti-UKIP bias

The BBC responded to my complaint about their exclusion of Glenn Tingle from their election programming in Norwich North in record time with a pre-prepared response that has been sent to lots of other people who complained.

Thanks for your e-mail regarding our coverage of UKIP.

Especially when there are a large number of candidates - 12 in Norwich North - the broader interests of the voters would not be served by giving equal coverage to each and every candidate, irrespective of their chances of success. So when editors are deciding how much coverage to give, relatively, to different parties and candidates in any election, one of the key factors they look for is "evidence of past and/or current electoral support" in that electoral area.

On that basis, in Norwich there is clear evidence of support for the three main parties as well as for the Green Party and therefore those parties will be getting similar levels of coverage. Similarly, there is evidence from the recent elections that both UKIP and the BNP have some support in at least parts of the constituency and they will also, proportionately, be given an appropriate level of coverage by programmes covering the by-election.

For example, 'Look East' looked at Glenn Tingle's candidacy on 15 July and Radio Norfolk did a piece on him the following day. UKIP leader Nigel Farage's visit to the constituency also featured on 'Look East' and 'Look East Special' on 20 July.

We'd like to assure you that we've registered your comments on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.

Regards

BBC Complaints
____________________________
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

This just isn't good enough. If they look at "evidence of past and/or present support" then they will see that Liebour and the Lib Dims both came behind UKIP in the elections in June. They will see that Liebour no longer controls a county council in England. They will see that Glenn Tingle is currently out in front according to one of his rivals.

Back to the BBC Complaints website ...

I have received a response to a complaint under reference T20090721xxxxxxxx and am not satisfied with the response.

In your response you claim that because there are so many candidates in the Norwich North by-election you allocate coverage to candidates based on "evidence of past and/or present support".

In the election last month UKIP came second, ahead of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens. Labour no longer controls a single county council in England and the Lib Dems control only one. Labour lost three quarters of their councillors in England and now have less that the Lib Dems. The Greens continue to be an irrelevance in local, national and EU elections.

Glenn Tingle's opponent in Norwich North, Craig Murray, says on his website that more people are telling him that they will be voting UKIP than any other party which confirms that Glenn Tingle is the leading candidate.

So the BBC has clearly not based its election coverage on "evidence of past and/or present support". I am very unhappy at the unfair promotion of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green Party at the expense of UKIP and at being lied to in the response to my original complaint.

If you received the same inadequate response, please make sure you make a new complaint about it.

BBC excluding UKIP from election programmes in Norwich

Glenn Tingle, the UKIP candidate for the Norwich North by-election, has been excluded from a BBC election hustings programme.

Craig Murray, one of Glenn Tingle's opponents in the election, says that "many more people have told me that they are voting UKIP, than have said they are voting for any other party". Feedback from the dozens of UKIP campaigners on the streets every day in Norwich tells much the same story - that Glenn Tingle is currently the lead candidate in Norwich North.

So why is the BBC - required by law to be an independent and impartial broadcaster - excluding the UK's second largest European party and the party with the leading candidate in the election from a televised hustings? Well, there's only one way to find out ...

The BBC is producing a televised election hustings for the Norwich North by-election but the UKIP candidate has has been excluded.

UKIP is the second largest European party in the UK, the fourth largest political party in the UK and by admission of one of his opponents, the UKIP candidate, Glenn Tingle, is the favourite candidate.

Excluding the leading candidate (or, indeed, any candidate) is unacceptable and I feel certain that if he was a candidate for one of the LibLabCon parties that he would have been included.

You might like to make a complaint to the BBC along similar lines. The more complaints they get, the more likely they are to treat Glenn Tingle fairly.