Party Election Broadcasts

In the run up to a general election, we’re bombarded with poster and newspaper ads for the various parties. But broadcasting rules prevent parties from buying advertising on radio and television.
And rules over the number of candidates being fielded determine which parties get broadcast – even unpleasant ones like the BNP.
But what has amazed me is the lack of awareness of these rules by the main political parties in regard to radio. They all send their broadcasts to BBC Radios 2 and 4, but all the main parties are entitled to broadcasts on national commercial radio – ie. Classic FM, Virgin Radio and Talksport. The broadcast should go out between 5pm and 9pm in the evening.
To date, only the Labour Party has bothered sending Virgin their broadcasts. The other parties are entitled to them, and the audio must exist because they supply it to the BBC so there’s no additional cost involved in supplying radio, but they either don’t know or haven’t bothered. The latter can’t be the reason since they must want their message heard by a million or more people. So it’s incompetence!


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