´óÏó´«Ã½

´óÏó´«Ã½ BLOGS - Graham Smith's Blog
« Previous | Main | Next »

Can't buy me love

Graham Smith | 11:18 UK time, Sunday, 25 March 2012

Congratulations to the for today's scoop about cash-for-access and the chance to lobby the Prime Minister. What makes the story outstanding is the secret footage of (now resigned) Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas talking about what you get for your money.

But the basic menu-with-prices is, and has been for years, on the : Party Patrons, from £50/month, The Front Bench Club (£5,000/year) and so on, all the way through to the Leader's Group (£50,000/year.)

I have to say I don't see anything really new in any of this, except the breathtaking audacity of the fundraising. I remember attending a Labour Party conference once where the soon-to-collapse US energy company Enron was sponsoring a function. Enron was later allowed to take over There was the inevitable , with the Conservatives demanding an inquiry.

The rest is history - and history repeats itself, over and over. Sometimes, with party political funding stories, I struggle to distinguish between farce and tragedy. Only last year the Committee for Standards in Public Life said political parties should get an extra £23m of taxpayers' money to reduce reliance on "big money" donations. It also recommended a £10,000 annual cap on individual donations from 2015. At present there are no limits on donations, but the name of anyone who gives more than £7,500 to a party is made public.

Comments

Be the first to comment

´óÏó´«Ã½ iD

´óÏó´«Ã½ navigation

´óÏó´«Ã½ © 2014 The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.