State Funding Of
Political Parties:
- Pence per vote and pence per member has increased in recent years
- However public funding has long already been in place for TV broadcasts, postage costs during election campaigns
- Already get £2 million to any party that has 2 or more members who have taken the oath of allegiance.
Should Political
Parties Be State Funded
|
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
If they not funded by the
taxpayer then they will be funded by wealthy individual’s.
|
Taxpayers can’t bankroll
parties they don’t support |
|
State funding would mean
that politicians can focus on representing candidates when they
rely on donors |
Politicians become isolated
from the real world |
|
Smaller parties such as the
Lib Dems would get equal amounts of money |
Parties will always have
unequal resources even if sate funding is introduced as there are
differences in membership numbers |
Has
The Reform System Worked:
Evidence
Against:
- There have been a few teething problems with attempts to circumvent the PPERA regulations of donations by offering a party long term short interest ‘loans’
- Many see this to be aimed at wealthy individuals such as Lord Ashcroft who is the Con party deputy chairman
- Labours membership has surged but it is still only worth 19% of the total income
- Wealthy individuals donations have not been put off by losing anonymity
Where
To From Here:
- All the parties accept that big money should be removed, few believe that state funding would go down well with the public
- Labour would be happy with restricting regulations but the Conservatives wouldn’t unless there funding was similar to the Labour party
- Party funding like the HOL reform seems to have gone past the national interest at the moment.