Donations to Political Parties
As someone who stood in the 2010 General Election against the three main (big spending) parties, I would say that in proposing more taxpayer money for political parties, Daniel Finkelstein in the Times (March 28) has got hold of only part of the problem.
Finkelstein is right in saying that only qualifying parties “with an electoral track record” are allowed (very unequal) access to national TV and Radio. To correct this, why not change the rules so that firstly all candidates with a minimum level of potential support in a particular constituency, would have equal coverage in the local broadcast media? This would be paid for directly by the state through the Electoral Commission. Potential support would be assessed by properly supervised sampling in each constituency in a given period.
Secondly, all parties fielding a qualifying number of candidates nationally would on the same principle have equal TV and Radio exposure paid for out of the state aid currently given, very unequally, to the parties under the present rules. Under this scheme, both locally and nationally, the state would thus provide to each qualifying party and candidate an equal in-kind contribution, which is at present limited to free postal delivery of a copy of each candidate’s leaflet to every address in a constituency.
This scheme would remove two problems at a stroke: firstly donations by a single individual or through their companies would be capped at a low level, say £5,000, without endangering the big parties’ ability to take part in an election as Finkelstein seems to think it would. This would largely banish the odious spectacle of the Conservative and Labour parties cadging £100,000+ donations from two of the most unpopular groups in a contemporary British society: sections of the City and Trades Unions respectively. Secondly, state aid being in-kind, would be used directly to assist the election process, not for the unspecified support of political parties between elections.
These changes would still leave billboards, the telephone, the (free) internet and virtually free email media for parties and candidates to spend their (now capped) donations on.
