My Local Member of Parliament, Craig Mackinlay will be on trial for election fraud in May. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter, including information from my meeting with him in July last year.
Background:
Back in 2015 there was a general election in the UK. My area, Thanet South a especially hard fought constituency. The contest was a two horse race between UKIP leader and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage and Conservative candidate, former UKIP treasurer Craig Mackinlay.
The campaign was nasty and came close to violence on occasion. UKIP had attracted the support of extremist groups Britain First and the English Defence League, members of these groups attacked other political campaigners leaving a bad smell in the air and local extremists Gary Field and Steve Lewis were regularly seen policing UKIP meetings to keep non UKIP supporting members of the public out.
The Conservative party meanwhile took a different approach, spending vast sums of money in a game plan assembled by American Big Data specialist Jim Messina and political strategist Lynton Crosby, bringing in big party names on so called Battle Buses including; Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Amber Rudd in conjunction with an extensive, targeted online campaign to bolster local support,
Election day came and after a tense count Mr. Mackinlay was elected as MP.
For a while things calmed down and life got back to normal. However a few months later, a Channel 4 investigation revealed irregularities in the Conservatives campaign across the UK. It was reported they had not accounted for spending accurately during the campaign in 20 different constituencies.
The UK has strict rules regarding election funding, with political parties needing to supply separate accounts for both national and local spending. The aim of which is to try to create a more level playing field, free from corruption.
The police began an investigation and in all but one constituency the charges were dropped. In Thanet South however, Mr. Mackinlay and two aides were charged with election fraud offences and a trial was scheduled to start in May 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/mar/23/conservative-election-scandal-victory-2015-expenses
Mr. Mackinlay has subsequently appeared at The Old Bailey where he denied two counts of making false election expenses.
This is where my interest and research in to Mr. Mackinlay began.
Mr. Mackinlay's first political involvement was as a member of an anti federalist group that later turned into the UK Independent Party (UKIP). After a number of failed attempts to become a Member of the European Parliament, Mr. Mackinlay jumped ship to join the Conservative Party.
He served as a Conservative councillor on Medway Council in 2007, In May 2011 and was appointed a member of Kent Police Authority in 2010.
Mackinlay next tried, unsuccessfully to become Kent Crime Commissioner in 2012.
During the campaign Mackinlay amassed around £100,000 to fund the campaign and was found to have breached data protection laws, sending unsolicited emails to privately listed email addresses in an attempt to garner attract extra supporter. Something he referred to at the time as an “honest mistake”.
Among those to receive unsolicited communication, was librarian Ian Clark from East Kent who wrote in his blog.
"Such a breach of data protection does not fill one with
Confidence. Data protection is a very serious issue and the last thing
We need is a police commissioner dealing with such an issue so
Carelessly."
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/tory-spent-highest-amount-in-5641/
A picture started to form…
Here was a clearly ambitious man with a compelling drive to be involved in public life.
Mr. Mackinlay, a Charted Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser has a comprehensive understanding of accounting and the law and had previously held the post of treasurer for the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
His voting record showed that his key interests were housing legislation, taxation, constitutional reform and mass retention of communications data. (As cited at www.TheyWorkForYou.com)
Not exactly someone ignorant to the law.
Fast forward to June 2017...
In this time I had been having problems with my landlord and was in the process of an illegal eviction, despite having never missed any payments or causing issues in the property I’d been living in for nine years. I won’t bore you with the details but my situation was desperate and I needed help.
Around the same time there was a horrific fire in London at Grenfell Tower that killed at least 71 people and shocked the nation. Due to the way the fire spread and intensity of the blaze it was clear something was wrong, very wrong. The feeling from local residents was that this was part of a process of economic cleansing. The low budget buildings were in London’s wealthiest borough with the lowest taxation rates in the city.
The aftermath filled myself and many others with pain and anger, it was clear that Chelsea and Kensington Borough Council could have prevented the fire’s spread had it now been for cost cutting exercises leading to low cost cladding being applied to the outside of the building. My feeling was those in power, be it private landlords or housing associations have a huge ability to make life hell for people whilst making themselves a hell of a lot of money.
I booked an appointment to see Mr. Mackinlay at his Broadstairs surgery.
During this meeting we discussed both local and national housing problems, with regards to Grenfell, he stated "the flats in Grenfell were refurbished to a very high standard". The fact that so many people had died seemed of no concern and even his assistant was taken aback with the crassness of this statement. There was a clear disconnect and denial that anything could have been done differently to save lives.
We discussed the shortage of affordable housing in the South East and this included a bill that would have required private landlords to provide housing 'Fit For Human Habitation'. A bill voted down in parliament by Mr. Mackinlay and the Conservative party en masse. His response was "Somewhere being fit for human habitation is a very broad term”. I countered should damp, unsafe electricity supplies rotting floors be ok? To which he said that sort of thing is a council problem and there was nothing he could do to help matters.
Decent flats and fair tenancy agreements shouldn’t really be a problem in a wealthy, civilised country should they?
Mr. Mackinlay disagreed, accusing those forwarding the bill of “virtue signaling”.
Shocked by this attitude, I did some further research. It turned out Mr. Mackinlay also has a number of ongoing property concerns.
Details from the UK Parliament's Register of Members' Financial Interests - 2017 website revealed…
Land and property portfolio: (i) value over £100,000 and/or (ii) giving rental income of over £10,000 a year
Shop and flat in Medway: (i) and (ii). (Registered 12 May 2015)
House in Swale: (i) and (ii). (Registered 12 May 2015)
House in Medway, owned jointly with my spouse: (i) and (ii). (Registered 12 May 2015)
House in Swale, owned by Mackinlay Ltd: (i) and (ii). (Registered 12 May 2015)
Business premises in Medway, owned by Sha Tin Consulting Ltd: (i) and (ii). (Registered 12 May 2015)
Unadopted road in Medway, owned by Manor Mews (Chatham) Ltd): (i). (Registered 12 May 2015)
Mackinlay Ltd; property company (Registered 12 May 2015)
Manor Mews (Chatham) Ltd; property company. Shares are owned through Sha Tin Consulting Ltd, of which Manor Mews is a subsidiary. (Registered 12 May 2015)
His reasons for not wanting basic housing standards became clearer...
Since Mr. Mackinlay appeared at The Old Bailey, he's been doing a little virtue signalling himself.
Whilst rarely present in the area or being seen to be involved in local matters, Mackinlay's been advertising (paid Facebook posts) he’s campaigning to stop live animal exports. So whilst local people and their living conditions are of no concern (South Thanet has some of the worst economic conditions in the UK), the apparent welfare of animals is (please not, I support the human treatment of animals, a worthy cause. I also afford the same compassion toward human beings).
Very little can be found in his voting records to support his online crusade, only Facebook posts stating how he met with celebrities to discuss the issue.
So what's happening?
It's has been widely reported that big data firm Cambridge Analytica have research stating how specific voter groups can be targeted with advertising via platforms such as Facebook.
In an interview on the BBC Cambridge Analytica, CEO Alexander Nix stated they'd discovered young women's voting habits could be manipulated by using animal rights issues. Now given the lack of any voting record, the paid adverts and Mackinlay's previous form, is it possible Mr. Mackinlay is cynically using animal rights to garner support?
His 'work' in this regard is heavily promoted around election times and, as most recently, 4 days after his first appearance in court at The Old Bailey.
Mr. Mackinlay is no stranger to Big Data having taken part in the following debates... (As cited at TheyWorkForYou.com )
On 15 Mar 2016:
Craig Mackinlay voted to allow the bulk interception of communications, equipment interference, and the retention and examination of bulk personal datasets, subject to certain safeguards.
On 7 Jun 2016:
Craig Mackinlay voted for the mass retention of information on people's Internet usage.
My opinion is Mr. Mackinlay is really rather quite an odious fellow, happy to accuse others of virtue signalling whilst cynically exploiting a popular issue with only his self interest guiding him.
I for one will be watching the forthcoming trial with interest...
For more information on Cambridge Analytica and Big Data
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pdzxv
I have posted this article on Steemit as its decentralized platform isn’t subject to algorithms designed to make content invisible.