Diana says...

Written by Diana Wallis on Thu 27th Apr 2006

The issue of millionaire donations to political parties in return for honours has rather diverted discussion away from how we should fund our politics.

Personally I think the case for state funding of political parties is quite convincing as long as we can agree to some fairly tight guidelines.

Firstly, let's cap both General Election campaigns at 5 million pounds per party and also annual admin costs at 5 million pounds per party (These would be maximum limits based on size of party). I estimate that over a five year period this would mean a total of 95 million pounds. That is 35p per person per year. I think that is a reasonable sum if we achieve the trade-off of no private financing of political parties beyond the donations of individuals (up to 5,000 pounds per individual per annum). Of course, there must be independent auditing. This is something all our political activities in the European parliament are subject to after all.

Secondly, I would like the money to be linked to activity in the local community (and here I mean constituency or ward) and not on expensive advertising or ridiculous stunts. For example, all MEPs, MPs, and local councillors should have the opportunity, at least once a year, to send out a report of their activities to all constituents. Also, I would like to see the freepost facility that is currently available to candidates in national elections extended to local elections.

So, in conclusion, I would like to see a cap on party expenditure, a cap on donations and greater public funding of political parties linked to their specific work in the local community. The question of what we should do with the House of Lords is another question which I will leave to a future column!

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