Tories must say no to more state funding

Simon

Fraser I agree re state funding. If Brown proposes more and Dave says no, it will damage Brown een further. But a cap under £50K? Like it or not parties do need cash from somewhere

westbromblogger

I agree wholeheartedly, its not what I pay my taxes for. They are trying to equate state funding with honest politics, which is utter ****. Just look to France, Germany or the EU and all the scandals there.

davefromluton

Any agreement on funding should include the repeal of the Communities Allowance. I have just consigned to my bin a political self-congratulation by Margaret Moran (NuLabour Luton South)allegedly published 'in accordance with House of Commons guidelines' at our expense. What a waste of money.

David

Yet more state funding of politics needs to be rejected. Brown has long wanted it to buttress his unstated vision ("L`etat c`est moi"). The attempts to link NuLabs present failure to respect the existing law with an argument for state funding of political parties is as obvious as it is contemptible.

steve_roberts

The only reasonable way to fund politics is by large numbers of small donations. Ron Paul's US fundraising - $4.3m from 37,000 different people in 24 hours - shows this can be done, if the politicians have a message that attracts public support. Certainly taxes should never be used to support the ambitions of people who are unable to attract wide support on merit.

Nicholas Millman

The Labour Party funding problems began with with their re-invention and lurch to the centre under Blair. It is apparent they have lost their way with a minority stuck in the cloud cuckoo land of Blair's centre right and the majority of old style Lefties and Socialist extremists along for the ride but increasingly bemused and uncomfortable. The current crisis of identity extends to their proxy media arm - the BBC. I do not see any justification for the long suffering public to pick up yet another tax burden to ensure the survival of this dishonest (in every sense) party. If they cannot operate lawfully and successfully in a free market then let them become extinct. I for one shall not mourn their passing. The vision of a parliament with the opposed but reasoned politics of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, in which the surviving Labour Loonies (old and new) are consigned to being a small fringe party, is a mighty refreshing one.

Danielle

Definately NO to state funding but I dont agree on a cap of £50k. If some idiot wants to give their cash, be it £5k, £50k or £5m, to the Labour or Conservative party they should be allowed to as long as they are not getting anything in return ie change in policy, peerage etc. Instead of imposing ever more rules and regulations why dont the Labour party just abide by the ones already in place, oh I forgot rules are there for everyone else and dont seem to apply to Labour!

TGF UKIP

Fraser, when you said re state funding, "It's an appalling proposal, which the Tories should reject outright." I was more than a bit nonplussed as I had understood that Dave had already given his assent to state funding some while back. I have, therefore, just replayed this morning's Marr interview and the exact quote from Dave is "If you have a cap of £50,000, which we support, you would need some extra state funding of political parties then we would only support that if you could really show that you could cut the cost of politics elsewhere." Now unless Northern English is a completely different language from Scottish or Metropolitan English it seems absolutely clear to me that the Dave Tories are in full agreeement with Labour that the taxpayer should provide additional funding for the political parties. No surprise, I suppose, all part of the Dave social democrat consensus.

Cogito Ergosum

"Politics costs money." OK, we pay for the running of Parliament, is that not the end of our liability?

Why should we pay for billboards, TV facilities, helicopter journeys, ...?

Jessica

We already have state funding of left wing political propaganda in the form of the BBC.

Darren Stokes

Agree with Fraser re putting the women up to face the music, thats because the only b**ls in the labour government is Ed schools and families minister!

Lee Jakeman

In Belgium, the anti-immigration and Flemish secessionist party, Vlaams Belang, is in danger of losing its state funding. This presents another interesting scenario: if the ruling classes don't like a particular populist party, they can "punish" that party by getting a sympathetic left wing judge to come up with a spurious "case" against the said party, thereby "disqualifying" it from state funding. So state funding provides the rulers with an additional leverage or control over who people vote for (Vlaams Belang is the most popular Flemish party).

TGF UKIP

Lee Jakeman, excellent point which is why The Tories are so happy to join Labour and the LibDems in the de facto preservation of the status quo in politics. Caps on donations plus taxpayers millions bestowed on the existing three means any other parties permanently locked out. We need a real 21st century Guido!

David Lindsay

The present party funding scandal may be precisely that, but it is no worse than several others in the recent past. The Tories and the Lib Dems are making such a song and dance, and Labour is letting them, because at last they all have the serious chance of getting their bills paid by the taxpayer for ever hereafter, and thus of being saved from the oblivion on the brink of which they all otherwise find themselves and each other.

Roger Thornhill

Blears on the case? Well, that means we will get incessant, irrational, non-sequitur one-way chuntering on this subject. Fraser is correct - No to State funding. Blears wants £13m per election just to pay parasites to try and hoodwink people. I know she has absolutely no shame, but each time she speaks I am still appalled at her utter brass neck. The contempt I hold for her has yet to reach its limit.

Joanne, Warrington

Brown always puts the women out to take the flak, when he was at the treasury it was Dawn Primarola now its Harman, Blears. On question time on thursday it was Caroline Flint.

Chad Noble

Just search on conservatives.com for the official tory state funding proposals from 20th March 2006. They may differ in detail, but Cameron is enabling Brown to force through this extension to state funding by being able to state that all three parties agree 'in principle' that more state funding is the way forward.

Stephen

Yes reject their demands for more of our money. What do they need it for anyway? TV broadcasts are free. MP's recieve lots of money and expenses. The media reports their activities obsessively. Just say No!

SJH

"We will, therefore, continue to work with the independent Electoral Commission to explore how best to support the vital democratic role of political parties, while recognising that campaigning activity must always be funded by parties from their own resources"- Harriet Harman, speech to the Hansard Society,16 January 2006

Sam R

Hazel Blears must surely be one of the Labour Party's best fund-raisers. Whenever I see her on television I have this terrible urge to give the party a few quid just to get her to go away!

Frank

Don't let Gordon Brown get his hands on more of our money. I have no desire to fund his sleezy pensions grabbing party.

Bruce

"the vital democratic role of political parties" What's that then?