TAXING TIMES AHEAD IF WE WANT CLEAN POLITICS

28-11-2007

Since neither Labour nor Conservative can historically claim a clean pair of hands over party funding, has the time come to cut out the donors completely and opt for state funding?

At the moment, taxpayers do stump up some cash to oil the wheels of opposition parties but this runs annually into the small millions – nothing near the £30 million the two main parties “borrowed” between them to fund their 2005 election campaigns.

The trouble with the current system isn’t simply that donors like David Abraham find ways to circumvent the rules; it’s that when people play by the rules they are, one way or another, seeking to buy influence.

This is as true of the large trade union which subsidises Labour as it is of the private company which backs the Conservatives.

Ideally, parties would mobilise at grass roots level and raise funds from individual supporters, capped at a maximum of £5,000 or £10,000 with no corporate cash of any kind going into the pot – but that remains a pipe dream.

In the meantime, if they can’t or won’t play by the rules maybe it’s time to give a little and start dipping our hands into our pockets as taxpayers.

When former civil servant Sir Hayden Phillips was commissioned to investigate this last year, he recommended a £25 million increase in State funding, divvy’d up on a formula based on votes cast.

No system is perfect, but if provided us with a way out of the current sleazy mess it should not be dismissed out of hand.

Should there be state funding of politics?

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