The political broadcasts at election time are a time-worn tradition in the UK (as is our reaction to them) but not too many people really understand why political campaign broadcasts take this form, nor why it’s actually quite important that they do.
In the UK, the act of political advertising is prohibited on TV and radio; one cannot simply buy an advertising slot and run an ad for your party or against your opponent. Instead, the parties are allocated a slot of free broadcast time which must follow a strict format including that famous header at the start and a similar one at the end.
This system has acted to prevent the UK sliding towards what has happened in the USA where they’ve embraced a free market in political campaigning. Just about anyone with money can buy, sell and trade space to run just about whatever they like.
There are still some limits in the US, organisations have to declare their donations to candidates and parties and can be limited in how much and when they can do it, but there’s also a giant glaring loophole in the form of what’s known as a Super-PAC.
By Craig Daizell.
Full story at Wings over Scotland.
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