Strong views on topical issues
Last of the Summer…Lib Dems
20Sep2008 Filed under: Politics Author: JTThe other evening I picked up my home phone to get a pre-recorded marketing message from someone called Nick Clegg. After realising that I wasn’t getting a personal message from Cleggy from last of the summer wine I put the phone down. This was in fact from Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats trying to poison my brain with his ridiculous weak minded political policies.
This really annoyed me as I’m a member of something called the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) except the Liberal Democrats don’t understand this very simple organisation. No wonder he has know chance with his political career.
The TPS say this on their website: “The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is the central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing telephone calls to your home or mobile telephone numbers. It is a legal requirement that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so.”
As you can probably already tell, I’m not a big fan of the Liberal Democrats and they fail to understand a simple fact that I am a member of the TPS. It clearly states that even political parties have to follow the rules. You may think this is a little over critical but in the world of politics the leader has to stand accountable for every decision and every mistake.
JT’s Judgement: “Not only is Nick Clegg a wet weekend but he seems to think he is a law unto himself violating the quite serious rules of the TPS that commercial companies have to follow. ”
If anyone would like to share their experiences of annoying marketing strategies from political party please let me know.
2 Responses to “Last of the Summer…Lib Dems”
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About JT
JT is an entrepreneur from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK who is keen to voice his opinions about things that upset him on a daily basis during the process of running his businesses. If you’re looking for someone to discuss and host debate about topical issues that are annoying you please feel free to get in touch and propose a topic for the blog.
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David Hickson
September 21st, 2008 at 11:22 am
I regret that you do not understand the TPS.
Those who fail to register are only deemed to consent to ATTENDED telephone calls from a person. EXPLICIT CONSENT is required for receipt of automated calls using a recorded message for the purposes of marketing.
You may be interested to know that the Information Commissioner’s Office (this is nothing to do with TPS Ltd, a subsidiary of the Direct Marketing Association) has now seen the script used by the Liberal Democrats and has determined that it DOES fall within the relevant definition of “marketing”.
The ICO is waiting for evidence of the fact that people who had not given explicit consent did actually receive these calls. You need to report this fact to the ICO (on 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45). If others in your area may be in the same position then perhaps your local newspaper or radio station may be able to help identify other cases.
With this information the ICO should be in a position to take action and to thereby help us all to understand the regulations more clearly.
JT
September 21st, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Thanks David, I stand corrected. Needless to say I can’t stand these automated calls and I can’t for one minute imagine why I would give my consent to recieve one.