A secret campaign has been launched against the Lobbying Bill. They have created a website www.stopthegaggingbill.com. They are encouraging people to send out emails against the bill (in which the website itself is misspelt). However, they don't say who they are. A whois search gives no information as they have decided to hid their identities (see below).
In a sense the issue is being sorted anyway as the concern of NGOs that they might have to register their spending is being dealt with. I asked the government for a commitment that the bill would be changed in committee and it will be.
However, I think it is a bit naughty not to reveal who is behind the campaign. There should be at least one named person identified. I don't think the law needs to be changed, but a bit of transparency would be nice.
WHOIS information for stopthegaggingbill.com:*** [Querying whois.verisign-grs.com] [Redirected to whois.123-reg.co.uk] [Querying whois.123-reg.co.uk] [whois.123-reg.co.uk] ****************************************************************** Registrar: 123Reg/Webfusion URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk/domain-names/ This domain is provided by 123-reg. We're the UK's largest registrar with over 3 million domains sold. We also provide cheap, easy website creation. ****************************************************************** Domain Name: STOPTHEGAGGINGBILL.COM Creation Date: 2013-08-21 Expiry Date: 2014-08-21 Nameserver: ns13.nationbuilder.com Nameserver: ns10.nationbuilder.com Nameserver: ns12.nationbuilder.com Nameserver: ns11.nationbuilder.com Registrant Name: Identity Protection Service Registrant Company: Identity Protect Limited Registrant Address: PO Box 795 Registrant Address: Godalming Registrant Address: Surrey Registrant Address: GU7 9GA Registrant Address: GB Administrative Name: Identity Protection Service Administrative Company: Identity Protect Limited Administrative Address: PO Box 795 Administrative Address: Godalming Administrative Address: Surrey Administrative Address: GU7 9GA Administrative Address: GB Administrative Email: stopthegaggingbill.com@identity-protect.org Technical Name: Identity Protection Service Technical Company: Identity Protect Limited Technical Address: PO Box 795 Technical Address: Godalming Technical Address: Surrey Technical Address: GU7 9GA Technical Address: GB Technical Email: stopthegaggingbill.com@identity-protect.org
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You may be interested that this right wing nut job site (biasedbbc.org) shares the same icann
registration. It's a private hosting company allowing dubious web sites to conceal their nature/backers. Only a criminal warrant will expose who is actually behind them. I am very interested in biasedbbc because they seem to extoll a typical tory/Sky anti BBC narrative, and allow a few unsavoury bloggers free reign with hate speech. At first the Goldalming registration, and J Hunts constituency seemed a delicious coincidence remembering Jeremy has his fingers in one web business I'm aware of (hotcourses.com). It'd be nice to know who is funding this site, as it's not as amateurish as you might expect. I smell Murdoch influence therein, part of the destroy the BBC cult, state run corporations cannot be seen to be a success indeed.