18 April 2005

1. Technically, for legal purposes, the term "[The] Alliance For Change" (which may be abbreviated as "AFC"), when the phrase or abbreviation used in the context of British Parliamentary and other elections does not refer to a political party, company, business, unincorporated association, trust, legal person, or existent entity of any description. The phrase or its abbreviation are merely a political slogan (the "slogan").
2. Any copyright there may in the slogan, when used when used in the context of British Parliamentary and other elections, is owned by John Allman as from 8 December 2004 when the phrase was first coined.
3. John Allman uses, at his own option, the courtesy title "Convenor" of the slogan.
4. The use of the slogan on election literature implies (1) that the candidate using the slogan affirms his or her agreement with the core policies set out at www.AllianceForChange.co.uk and (2) that he has the oral or written permission of the Convenor to the use of that slogan.
5. It follows that the use of the slogan on candidates on mailings does not violate the requirement of the Royal Mail rule, "Any form of advertising other than for your candidacy or political party will not be considered as a matter relating to the election (for example, company logos or advertising slogans".
6. The use of URLs of websites that merely give information about issues on which a candidate is campaigning, or recommending which URLs otherwise inform the public what sort of person the candidate is, do not violate the requirement of the Royal Mail rule, "Any form of advertising other than for your candidacy or political party will not be considered as a matter relating to the election (for example, company logos or advertising slogans)".
7. The Convenor happens to be the nominating officer of more than one political party legally registered with The Electoral Commission. The constitutions of these parties are minimal in content, and allow for the parties concerned to have no members.
8. The Convenor is legally entitled in his capacities as Nominating Officers of the aforesaid parties to declare election candidates to be candidates of these parties, enabling them to have descriptions on the ballot papers. Candidates' descriptions do not have to include the names of their parties. Candidates are not required by law to be "members" of their political parties.
9. The Convenor is in the habit of using the following terms and other terms merely colloquially without defining them: (1) "flag of convenience" political party; (2) an AFC "franchise".
10. Separate registered political parties earn separate entitlements to party political broadcast slots.

John Allman