This election should be prime time for us to challenge leaders on human rights, the arms trade and environmental issues, but no one wants to get fined
Wondering why this election has seen no reasonable discussion about human rights, the environment or development? That’s because the Lobbying Act, which everyone said was merely a “transparency tool”, has successfully managed to gag any organisation that could have added some depth to the election debate. Instead, polarised views based on opinion, rather than fact, dominate.
Over the past six weeks, I’ve been sitting in my quiet corner “knitting” as the election rages around me. Apparently that’s what charities do best. The 2014 act, which restricts what NGOs can say in the year before a general election, has managed to cower charities across the country to do precisely what they said they wouldn’t do: shut up and sit down, and let the politicians and the media do all the talking.
Continue reading...from Voluntary Sector Network | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2r1ldjF
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