And almost a quarter favour a ban on private loans to them.
“In a free democracy, taxpayers should not be asked to support political parties who, if they had sufficient support, should be to fund their own campaigning.”
Campaigning costs money. Taxpayer-funding of political parties would be a disaster. So there’s only one solution – and it isn’t quick or easy.
They are more reliant than ever on union funding – but the policies they have to adopt in return just make their fundraising efforts even harder.
Better Together declares it doesn’t need any more donations, and the Conservatives trounce Labour in the party stakes.
In principle, not having one is fine. But in practice, this buttresses the Party’s main reputational weakness.
Plus: Up yours, Amazon. Secrets of Thanet South. Up yours, Lutfur. Plus: The madness of sacking Graeme Archer. And: Is Andy Murray Scottish, after all?
They include Andrew Feldman, whom, one minister told me, ought to be recognised as “one of the five most important Tories in the country.”
He’s had a lot of bad days, but awful polls, a fundraising shortfall and rebellious MPs mean this one takes the biscuit.
While the Tories clear 40 per cent of their debt in a quarter, how will Miliband build a war chest when he’s in such a financial mess?
Under new ownership, will it carry on providing cheap finance to Britain’s leading advocates of irresponsible borrowing?
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Ed Miliband displays what child psychiatrists call a "pattern of behavior". Confronted with a problem he can no longer avoid, he moves late and does little, a response that voters have seen again and again. First on immigration, then on welfare, then on borrowing, he has half-closed the door […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter Congratulations to Michael Hintze who has been awarded a knighthood. Mr Hintze is very rich – a billionaire if measured in US dollars, although probably not quite in terms of sterling. His hedge fund CQS is among the top perfomers in the world. This is a success not just for […]
The Group of States against Corruption was set up in 1999 by the Council of Europe. It has an unfortunate official acronym: GRECO – which rather brings one particular European state to mind. But now that we’re on the subject of Greece, let’s take a look at an under-reported aspect of the Greek debt crisis, […]
Political parties and online computer games are not the same, but one sector is seeing massive year on year growth and the other, quite frankly, isn’t.