Funding Political Parties

The situation in Ukraine has caused questions to be raised once again about the funding of the Tory party - they have been in receipt of some millions of pounds that ultimately came from Russia. This donations are, of course, entirely legal, but they have caused at least some raised eyebrows. And, at a time when the UK really needs to take strong action against Russia, we really need to be confident that the party of government is empowered to do so.

So yet another aspect of our politics that needs to be cleaned up is the funding of our political parties.

My suggestion is pretty straightforward, and it is that political parties should have exactly two sources of funding, and it should be illegal for them to raise funds by any other means:

• They are permitted to charge a fee for membership of the party. They can set the price of this membership as they wish, but it must be a single, fixed annual fee for all - no concessionary memberships, no gold passes, etc, etc. Anyone on the relevant electoral register can choose to join a party... and only registered voters can join a party. (Oh, and only individuals could take out memberships on their own behalf - no "associate memberships" for being part of a given union, or whatever.)
• Additionally, after each general election parties should receive money from the public purse, with the amount received depending on the number of votes that they receive. (That is, for every vote cast they would be given £1, or whatever a suitable amount is.)

There would be a couple of effects of this. Firstly, it would cut out any suggestion of dodgy money getting into the coffers of political parties. Similarly, it would sharply reduce the influence of unions on parties, most notably the Labour party. It would prevent parties being heavily funded by bequests, which currently mean that dead members are more important to the Tory party than living ones. And it would prevent the raffling off of 'access' - pay some thousands and you too can play tennis with Boris, have lunch with Ruth, or whatever!

But, crucially, the funding by votes clause would have the effect of making every vote in an election matter - even if you live in a rock-solid safe seat, voting for some other party would be worthwhile as it means more funding for your party of choice.

(Additionally, it of course means that parties must then either work to maximise membership or to maximise the number of votes they receive, in order to be funded. Which is really no bad thing.)

Just my suggestion.

#8: "The Power of One", by Bryce Courtenay (a book from The List. Six to go.)