Just read about the latest "money and politics" saga :-(
I'm not going to try and defend the situation that Peter Watt has found himself in ... he is the legally responsible officer for donation reporting ... but, in all the time he's been General Secretary he has always struck me as the consummate professional - and no, I don't know him!
Personally, for me, it just further underlines the inherent unsatisfactory nature of (all) political Party funding in the UK. If someone doesn't bite-the-bullet soon on some sort of enhanced state funding (and there are a myriad models out there) then it will only get worse, not better.
3 comments:
Dear Andrew
Why not join our campaign to Save the Labour Party as a mass-membership, solvent democratically run political body, instead of looking to the taxpayer for support?
Peter
Many thanks for the comment.
Whilst I completely agree that we need an "active, vibrant, participatory membership", I'm not convinced by the 'member-only funded' argument for political parties I'm afraid.
Being tribalist, it would be fine for Labour, the Tories, and possibly the Lib-Dems ... but it would be a disaster for small Parties and not good for pluralist politics.
Personally, I think democracy thrives on pluralism, and I think some form of state support is required to ensure smaller Parties survive and develop.
I don't consider that stance to be mutually exclusive to continuing the Trade Union link.
Andrew
This pamphlet may be of interest re- the exchange above:
http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/party-funding-book.pdf
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