A striking party funding statistic
From Democratic Audit’s latest, er…, democratic audit comes this about political donations in the UK. … Read the full post »
Donations
Donations to political parties, candidates and politicians are regulated in the UK, but the rules are not always followed as you can find out from my posts on the subject.
More questions raised over Lord Ashcroft’s business empire
The business dealings of former Conservative Party Deputy Chairman and one of its biggest donors, Lord Ashcroft, are back in the news again … Read the full post »
The trade unions could be doing Ed Miliband – and all of us – a favour
If Labour loses a large chunk of its funding from trade unions bosses then it could unlock the long-running saga that is political party funding reform. … Read the full post »
Michael Brown arrested in Dominican Republic
The Liberal Democrats’ biggest donor, who has been on the run for three years after being convicted of a multimillion pound theft, has been arrested. … Read the full post »
Political party funding: transparency alone isn’t enough
Transparency has failed. That is the lesson from the last decade of political party funding reform. … Read the full post »
And in other news… Peter Chegwyn assaulted
Lib Dem leader of Gossport Council, Peter Chegwyn has been assaulted by one of his predecessors as Liberal Democrat leader. … Read the full post »
A quiet revolution in political party finance
As the Financial Times reported earlier this week (expanding on a point Stephen has made previously): The [Liberal Democrats] party said it had raised more than Labour from individual and corporate donors in five out of the past six quarters. In the second quarter of this year the party attracted £850,000 against £300,000 for Labour, … Read the full post »
A trio of good news on political reform
Ed Miliband is to distance Labour from its trade union paymasters by diluting the party’s financial dependence on them. … Read the full post »
Lib Dem ministers follow advice for councillors and give 10% to the party
Over the last few years there has been an increasingly common pattern in the party of asking or expecting councillors to contribute sums. … Read the full post »
Good news as Electoral Commission decides to preserve local donation records
The Electoral Commission is plugging a gap in the record of political donations following a decision to change its policy on retaining copies of constituency candidate expense returns. … Read the full post »