The key thing is that people don’t join political parties to be fundraisers. Parties should be about campaigning, about developing policies, and providing the grass-roots linkage between parliamentarians and the public as a whole.

Almost every other liberal democracy has public funding. I don’t see why we should stand out. It would let parties do what they are for, and most importantly would prevent anyone buying an election – be it unions, or big business, or anyone else.

That said, I agree with DPFs point that it would need to be carefully structured so as to prevent it supporting decaying parties too long, or new and growing parties too slowly. There are lots of examples to look at though – this issues are not un-resolvable.

Jordan

There is nothing supporting public-minded citizens sending donations to every registered political party, if they so wish. The problem is that most regard all parties with equal contempt.

Also a surprise that Labour made a loss on its last election – admittedly they spent money like it was going out of fashion but given the big donations from the Unions, the “good citizen” donations of some of the big corporates Labour clearly fell short in membership and fundraising.