Taxpayer funding of politics is better than the sordid status quo
|
Version 0 of 1. The stink of tax avoiders and evaders encouraged by HSBC to hide bricks of money from tax collectors gets even worse as it emerges that so many party donors have Swiss bank accounts, which may or may not have been used for that purpose. You might expect scandal fatigue among voters: entanglements of money for political influence and honours have engulfed Westminster forever. Maybe all this was long ago priced in to the public’s dangerous contempt for politics and parties. Yet parties are essential to democracy. Surely this time, you might think, a loud enough outcry will force a clean-up of the cash-for-influence filth that has swilled around parliament for so long. Surely it’s time for money to be taken out of party politics? Don’t count on it – even though people buying political power makes the MPs’ expenses scandal look a mere peccadillo. The Electoral Reform Society finds three-quarters of voters say money has too much sway in politics. About 65% think donors buy honours and roughly the same number say the system is corrupt: the wonder is who on earth the other 35% can be? Related: Lord Fink: tax avoidance is normal in British society When the committee on standards in public life took evidence for its 2011 report into party funding, it heard from Sir Stewart Wheeler, who said it was “natural” and unobjectionable that donors gain influence, “to put their views on what is best for the country and how the country shall be run. I don’t see any objection to that”. Michael Farmer – hedge funder and copper magnate, senior treasurer of the Tory party – has donated £6.5m. He told the committee many donors would expect an honour in return for funds: “You cannot get away from the fact that the word ‘peerage’ is connected to large donations, so if you are giving a large donation there is a part of your mind somewhere that every now and then thinks about it.” He received his peerage last September. Neither Wheeler nor Farmer are named in the HSBC files, but surely this time state funding of parties must happen? Labour should do it immediately if it wins: any attempt at cross-party agreement always sinks into the Westminster sewerage. Ed Miliband has unilaterally risked its funding base by insisting that in future all union donations must come from individual members signing up to opt in to party affiliation, which will lose Labour slabs of money. The committee on standards in public life suggests a £10,000 cap on individual gifts, while the public says no more than £5,000. Even then, it would be open to cheating by donors spreading money around family and friends to each give separately, benefiting the Tories most. Research used by the Electoral Reform Society shows just 60 groups – that’s particular families, companies or trade unions – have been responsible for a vast slab of gifts of over £250,000 to all three main parties in the years 2000 to 2010. Related: David Cameron branded the 'dodgy prime minister' in HSBC tax attack The committee suggested a state contribution of £3 for every Westminster vote a party gets, once over a threshold of electing two MPs. The British state spends the least in the EU – where the average is £3.25 per head a year – at just 0.36p. Over an entire parliament, everything included, with a free election mailshot for every candidate, our democracy costs the state just £2.6bn, says the Electoral Reform Society. Few things matter more than restoring a measure of decency to democracy, as a step towards regaining public support for politics. Scandalous contamination of parliament by cash for questions, for honours, for influence, for government contracts, gifts from tax exiles and criminals has erupted time and again. All that pomp and circumstance fails to hide the corruption beneath. The squalid spectacle of purchasers of political power tripping into the Grosvenor House Hotel this week to pour money into David Cameron’s pockets is an obscenity. They may be seeking no more than preventing a Labour government raising top tax or targeting the mansions of a tiny top echelon, but that is buying political power. Labour goes into this election with three times less money. It’s time for a level playing field. People may hate paying for detested political parties out of their taxes, but that’s far better than others buying influence. |