The claim: The Liberal Democrat manifesto says that legalising cannabis would raise £1bn for the Exchequer.
Reality Check verdict: £1bn seems like a reasonable estimate, although most of the figures used to make it are based on uncertain figures about currently illegal activities.
When the Liberal Democrats were in the coalition government, they asked the Treasury to work out a costing for this policy.
The director of the CPS, Alison Saunders, has decided not to press charges against thirty Conservative MPs and their agents for mis-reporting their election spending in contravention of the rules governing election spending. This is despite the extensive investigation conducted by over fifteen police forces, which took over two years to complete,
This decision raises major concerns about the accountability of those with power over us. If the Conservative Party has nothing to hide why did the Electoral Commission complain over a lack of cooperation?
We are calling for a protest gathering in response to CPS decision not to prosecute Tory election fraud. We cannot allow such blatantly biased behaviour go unchallenged with out a response from the forces of democracy. Election fraud is the theft of democracy from all of us by the rich and powerful. By making this decision, the CPS has declared which side they are on. Democracy is degraded when we fail to act on such abuses of power
Targeting the so-called “dark ads” is a black-box decision, hidden away under the covers at Facebook or other ad-serving social media platforms. The platforms make deals with political ad buyers, who in turn are using analytics – your interests, your location, your age, your gender, and far more. One such ad buyer is Cambridge Analytica – the big-data crunching firm that gained notoriety for what its execs call psychological warfare in both the Trump and Brexit campaigns.
The Observer has been investigating the connection between Cambridge Analytica and the unofficial Leave.EU campaign. Also, The Telegraph has reported that the official Vote Leave campaign spent £3.5m on recruiting Canadian tech company AggregateIQ (AIQ), which likewise specializes in this type of highly targeted Facebook advertising.
Who Targets Me? will shine some much-needed light on this activity, said Dr Thevoz:
Traditionally, when you print a leaflet, there’s a physical copy that’s there for all to see. Online ads vanish without a trace, potentially making them a haven for the dark arts of politics. This project shines a much-needed light on the hidden side of electioneering.
Who Targets Me? co-founder Jeffers:
For the good of our democracy, it’s time to throw some light on this dark and unregulated area of campaign spending. Facebook advertising is highly targeted and tailored to the recipient, battle-tested for effectiveness, yet invisible to anyone but the end user. There are no spending limits on digital ads, despite strict legal controls in other areas of campaign expenditure. It gives big money a strong voice in our elections.
The activists are asking UK voters to install a Google Chrome extension to collect data on what ads they see in their feed. It will classify those ads according to party.
The project launched earlier this month. As of May 7, the group was well on its way to signing up participants in nearly all of the UK’s constituencies:
One of Britain’s biggest managers of ethical funds is to dump £20m of shares in fossil fuel companies in one of the biggest divestments so far because of climate change.
Shares in BHP Billiton, the Anglo-Australian mining giant, will be among those sold by BMO Global Asset Management’s range of “responsible” funds, which manage £1.5bn of assets. They were previously known as the “stewardship” funds, the first ethical funds launched in Britain.
Muhammad Rabbani at the offices of Cage in London. He has been detained at least 20 times over the past decade when entering the UK. Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer
The human rights group Cage is preparing to mount a legal challenge to UK anti-terrorism legislation over a refusal to hand over mobile and laptop passwords to border control officials at air terminals, ports and international rail stations.
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