Talk:Purdah (pre-election period)

Merge & rename discussion
We have two articles, Budget purdah and this one. It would seem to me that this is pretty redundant, as the topic could be served better under one article, perhaps Purdah (politics) would be a better name for the two concepts. The Budget purdah article is nothing more than a WP:DICDEF, and google searches turn up the fact that it is a real concept, but no sources actually discuss the concept in enough depth to support a distinct article. It seems that a merger and rename would do both articles better. -- Jayron  32  04:45, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

I think they are very different in scope. Budget Purdah only applies to the Chancellor (and very close advisors), whereas pre-election purdah applies to all the public sector really. Also I think there is great value in keeping Purdah and pre-election period within the article title as they are synonymous (but people will be searching for one or the other depending on what terminology they use within their organisation). In fact 'pre-election period' is now the officially favoured term, but purdah is in such common usage that it cannot be dropped yet, there would be a case for reversing the Article name to Pre-election period (purdah). In light of that Purdah (politics) would not be a good title and overall makes the merging seem even less appropriate, as proposed.

However, if the article were to be broadened to something like Political messaging restrictions (purdah), apart from the lack of 'pre-election period', which may be a more commonly searched for, in the title this could cover both topics.

Hope that helps. -- 62.25.109.195 (talk) 17:11, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

I agree with the anonymous user. The two terms refer to different things. Merging them based only on a common name would be a bit too "wiktionary-ish"; the main thrust of the article would become to define usage of the term "purdah" within politics, rather than a more encyclopaedic discussion of the subject(s) in question.

My preferred solution would be to rename this article to "pre-election period", retaining a link here from Purdah (disambiguation), and keeping Purdah emboldened in the first line of the article.

Whether Budget Purdah deserves an entire article is a different question, and one I'm fairly ambivalent on. --Spudtater (talk • contribs) 10:10, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

I have no opinion on the matter of Budget Purdah, but as somebody who has worked in local government communications since 2004 I can say that - in Birmingham at least - there is no sense at all of the term 'Purdah' being deprecated, so I suggest not only leaving this page title as is, but also removing the reference to 'now less favoured' unless there is a citation to justify it. I also suggest removing the suggestion box at the top, since there has been no update to the discussion for almost a year. Star-one (talk) 11:45, 27 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Every London borough I've worked for has called it purdah. Secretlondon (talk) 22:26, 20 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep the pre-election and budget versions separate and just add a disambiguation and cross-link. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.90.243.186 (talk) 08:28, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Date when purdah starts
Hi. The article says that purdah in 2012 starts on 27 March. In London it starts on 20 March, I don't know about the rest of the country. Secretlondon (talk) 19:17, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Have to admit I'm hazy on this myself, too - six full weeks before may 3 is actually march 29, not 27 - however a localgov press officer confidently declared it to start on march 27 so I deferred to his likely superior knowledge when I changed the date. Could the Londonist article be wrong where it implied purdah had already formally started in London? Alternatively, does each governing authority set its own start date? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Star-one (talk • contribs) 08:03, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * My own council (where I work) has definitely started purdah on the date Londonist give. I can't find a reference to it on any public facing local gov pages, but it'll be on their intranets I'm sure. I just can't imagine that it's different outside London. Secretlondon (talk) 01:02, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

I've found a source for a non-London 2012 purdah date and it gives 27 March! Secretlondon (talk) 18:55, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
 * And another one: Secretlondon (talk) 19:01, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

It'd be handy now to know by who and how the official declaration of the start of purdah is made so we can ensure the article is properly updated in time for future elections too - presumably there will also be purdah restrictions for the mayoral and police commissioner elections in november? Star-one (talk) 12:08, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I found a reference to a purdah date for a police commissioner election whilst looking for the Council ones. I'll see if I can find it again. Secretlondon (talk) 19:37, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * This say it is when the notice of election is published (and is another ref for the 20 April in London!) Secretlondon (talk) 20:02, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Yep, I've just clarified this too as I type with our elections office (in the course of paring back our referendum information) that purdah begins when the notice of election is published, and that different authorities tend to publish on slightly different days. For future updates to the article I think we'll have to fudge it by including the deadline date for the publishing of the notice of election as the date when purdah starts. Star-one (talk) 15:38, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Final paragraph of lead
Hi folks. Anyone care to change this paragraph so it makes sense?

"At its weakest, the time period brings a moral commitment for executive officers not unless ordered by elected representatives to enter into any transactions or carry out any works which would conflict with the stated intentional commitments (manifesto) of the cabinet or shadow cabinet and possibly other candidates." 2.24.198.211 (talk) 22:24, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

punctuation problem

 * Purdah is the pre-election period in the United Kingdom, specifically the time between an announced election and the final election results which affects civil servants.

This needs either a comma or a restructuring. What affects civil servants: the purdah or the final election results? —Tamfang (talk) 20:32, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Name falling out of use
Although still commonly used by the media, the name is rapidly falling out of use in government/local government use - with the term 'pre election period' used instead - as purdah is deemed to be sexist and misogynistic. Don't think we'll be renaming the article any time soon, but be on the look out for other references regarding the use of the less sexist term. In due course, we might end up rewording bits - or adding a caveat to the lead. Turini2 (talk) 12:08, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

The name is no longer used pretty much anywhere official, because of the reasons set out in the article. We should rename the article. Thatwouldbelovely (talk) 09:27, 9 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Categorically agree with this. Government organisations no longer refer to this as Purdah, and official communications about the recent pre-election period refer to this as a historical name (see below quote from: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05262/)
 * "The pre-election period of sensitivity occurs in the weeks leading up to an election or referendum. The period is also called the period of ‘heightened sensitivity’ and in the past was often known by the term ‘purdah’." | 62.253.82.231 (talk) 09:37, 28 June 2024 (UTC)