As the i reported, Emily Darlington, Labour MP for Milton Keynes Central, ‘is seeking to make the Electoral Commission recommend enhanced DBS checks for candidates and then publish whether or not parties have agreed to the vetting. The aim is to ensure political parties justify whether their candidates are fit for office and name and shame those who refuse to participate.’
This is troubling when one considers that DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks include not just criminal history but ‘non-crime hate incidents’, which may even appear on the records of people who haven’t been contacted by police. These highly-political charges are far more likely to be directed at those with Right-wing opinions.
When western European countries do things like this, I try to gauge whether this is normal by asking the question: what if Hungary did this? In most of these cases, I imagine the assessment would be that it was an assault on liberalism and democratic norms. In which case, what if Britain is undergoing the sort of ‘democratic backsliding’ usually levelled at central European countries with conservative governments? What if Keir Starmer is actually one of these illiberal ‘strongmen’ we read about, just not a very effective one.
– Ed West
It is It is a matter for the electorate as to who is fit for elected office or not, based upon the representations made at the stump. There is no place for interference by the blob in its many forms.
Wow! I had naively thought you do a NCHI you get six coppers round your gaff!
This is disturbing. They can put you on the “naughty step” and not tell you why?
Even the STASI used to come round your flat on the QT, take a shit and not flush.
First full disclosure – as a Parish Councillor I have volunteered for a DBS check as the Village Hall has events with children, and my Wicksteed Park DBS check is no longer valid – as I was made redundant from Wicksteed Park, by the Covid Shutdown, back in 2020.
However, no one should be FORCED to get a DBS check to stand for election.
That should be obvious.
As for the International Establishment ritual attacks on Hungary – the largest city, and capital, of Hungary is governed by the left.
Yet this fact does not prevent the International Establishment, for example the Economist magazine, saying that the conservative national government of Hungary is going to be removed soon – and they clearly do not mean voted out in an election, they mean some sort of “Colour Revolution” organized by outside forces (organized by the International Establishment – both government, such as the European Union, and Corporate – such as the banks and other such who decided to remove Pope Benedict XVI).
Such actions are clearly unacceptable.