Oh, dear, more sleaze! Do we need to change the way that parties are funded?

The state should fund all the political parties, with nothing from the public allowed apart from party membership fees (to be set for all parties at the same rate, by law) and MPs should not be allowed to accept donations. They should be paid much, much more to compensate (and level the playing field) and they should only be allowed to undertake other work in the field of expertise on a pro bono basis (i.e with no remuneration whatsoever) .

😄 I can see them all going for that maizie

Not a chance in hades

I was listening to AC/RS podcast and didn’t know that MPS weren’t paid until the 1940s.

So I think it is time the whole thing was revisited.

Whitewavemark2

😄 I can see them all going for that maizie

Not a chance in hades

🤣🤣🤣

I can see potential problems with it, but we really need to solve the problem of money buying political favours...

MaizieD

The state should fund all the political parties, with nothing from the public allowed apart from party membership fees (to be set for all parties at the same rate, by law) and MPs should not be allowed to accept donations. They should be paid much, much more to compensate (and level the playing field) and they should only be allowed to undertake other work in the field of expertise on a pro bono basis (i.e with no remuneration whatsoever) .

This.

Some years ago there was a government commissioned study into state funding of political parties but as I recall the parties could not sign up to its recommendations. I think it was led by Sir Hayden Phillips, a former Permanent Secretary.

Even if, as seems very unlikely, the private funding of political parties were to be banned as MaizieD suggests, we would not have a level playing field as long as so-called "think tanks" were uncontrolled.

There are think thanks aligned to various political positions but it is the right wing think tanks working in Tufton Street which have huge power and influence, whilst not disclosing the source of their funding.

According to Wikipaedia -

"55 Tufton Street is a four-storey Georgian-era townhouse on Tufton Street, in Westminster, London, owned by businessman Richard Smith. Since the 2010s the building has hosted a network of libertarian lobby groups and think tanks related to pro-Brexit, climate science denial and other fossil-fuel lobby groups. Some of the organisations it houses have close connections with those at nextdoor 57 Tufton Street, including the Centre for Policy Studies and CapX.

A group of these lobbying organisations, dubbed "The Nine Entities", used the building for biweekly meetings to coordinate policy and public messages. The nine lobby groups—the TaxPayers' Alliance, the office of Peter Whittle (a former deputy leader of UKIP), Civitas, the Adam Smith Institute, Leave Means Leave, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (the UK's principal climate science denial group), BrexitCentral, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Institute for Economic Affairs—were accused by former Vote Leave employee Shahmir Sanni of using the meetings to "agree on a single set of right-wing talking points" and "securing more exposure to the public".

This network is tied to major US funders of climate science denial and organizations supporting right-wing political causes including the Koch brothers of Koch Industries and Robert Mercer. The network works closely with British politicians, and also has extensive ties to populist right-wing parties in Europe, such as the Sweden Democrats and the Brothers of Italy."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55_Tufton_Street

There are left wing and centrist Think tanks, too, varian.

I have no idea what to do about Think Tanks... Perhaps politicians shouldn't be able to work with those think tanks that don't disclose their sources of funding? Or those with non UK funders?

Some think tanks are more transparent about their funding than others.

This is from 2017, but it ranks think tanks from A to E:

www.businessinsider.com/who-funds-you-ranking-of-think-tanks-transparency-2017-7?r=US&IR=T

The think tanks are not the only block to a level playing field MaizieD.

What about the media? Most of our national press is or has been owned by billionaires who are either foreign nationals or tax exiles. More than 80% of newspaper readers read papers such as The Daily Mail, Express, Telegraph, Sun, etc which feed them a right wing view, day in day out.

Then we have social media, which we do know has been exploited by well funded political influencers using targeted messages to steer voters in a certain direction, the most blatant example being the pro-brexit factions (including Russia) just before the fraudulent referendum of 2016.

I wish I could see how any of that might be controlled to the extent of achieving anything like a level playing field.

growstuff

Some think tanks are more transparent about their funding than others.

This is from 2017, but it ranks think tanks from A to E:

www.businessinsider.com/who-funds-you-ranking-of-think-tanks-transparency-2017-7?r=US&IR=T

We have never evder been given a list of the ERG, a right-wing extremist think tank funded by us, the tax payers- and who were those pushing for Brexit and a very hard extreme Brexit at that. We know of some members, but we do not have access to a full list. Remember the interview with Suella Braverman!?!

Here it is, if you have forgotten

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbkog8tY5U8

It is not easy to identify all the members of the ERG but I happen to know that my MP , David Warburton, has been listed as a member of the ERG and seems to be very close to Jacob Rees Mogg.

Could this possibly explain why some nine months after his exposure in the Sunday papers as having dubious financial dealings with a very dodgy Russian, having been accused of sexual assault by three different women (lurid details available from The Sun) and strong evidence (photos and mobile phone evidence) of him taking class A drugs, David Warburton has still not resigned as an MP and enabled the voters of Somerton and Frome to replace him with a good Liberal Democrat?

Is Warburton being protected by the all-powerful ERG?

Fleurpepper

growstuff

Some think tanks are more transparent about their funding than others.

This is from 2017, but it ranks think tanks from A to E:

www.businessinsider.com/who-funds-you-ranking-of-think-tanks-transparency-2017-7?r=US&IR=T

We have never evder been given a list of the ERG, a right-wing extremist think tank funded by us, the tax payers- and who were those pushing for Brexit and a very hard extreme Brexit at that. We know of some members, but we do not have access to a full list. Remember the interview with Suella Braverman!?!

Oh yes! Indeed!

Fingers crossed for the LibDems varian. Quite honestly, if Warburton stands in the next election and wins, the voters of Somerton and Frome will go down in my estimation.

varian re your post of 18.05.41

That's why I'd like to see Media Studies in schools.

In the olden days (before the National Curriculum) one of the topics we studied in PSE (personal and social education) was comparing how different media outlets reported different stories and discussed why they might have different approaches. I guess that would be considered far too "woke" these days.

varian

It is not easy to identify all the members of the ERG but I happen to know that my MP , David Warburton, has been listed as a member of the ERG and seems to be very close to Jacob Rees Mogg.

Could this possibly explain why some nine months after his exposure in the Sunday papers as having dubious financial dealings with a very dodgy Russian, having been accused of sexual assault by three different women (lurid details available from The Sun) and strong evidence (photos and mobile phone evidence) of him taking class A drugs, David Warburton has still not resigned as an MP and enabled the voters of Somerton and Frome to replace him with a good Liberal Democrat?

Is Warburton being protected by the all-powerful ERG?

No, I don’t think it does suggest he is being protected varian. 14 MPs have lost the party whip during this parliament, and the rules allow them to continue as independent MPs until the next general election. In that respect Warburton is no different to any other MP.
I do think the rules should be changed so that if the whip is lost a by election is triggered, but you’d have to be a conspiracy theorist to single him out compared with the others who have lost the whip,

I hadn't realised he'd lost the whip.

He had been suspended and was sitting as an independent last I heard, I’ll double check.

Casdon

He had been suspended and was sitting as an independent last I heard, I’ll double check.

You're right - according to Wiki anyway.

Yes, he has.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/all-the-reasons-why-tory-mps-have-been-suspended_uk_63bea63fe4b0b2e1506ccee4

Numerous other MPs have had to resign for just one misdemenour.

Sex, drugs, dodgy Russian money? How much more should it take?

You know me, I have to check out the facts. In this parliament 13 MPs have gone. Of those, 4 died in office, 4 accepted posts outside Westminster, 4 resigned after sexual misconduct was proven, and one because he broke paid advocacy rules. Is that numerous?
The real point is that there is nothing in the rules to say MPs have to leave parliament, even when they break the law, it is down to their consciences.

It is ridiculous how long it takes for multiple allegations to be investigated and come to a verdict.