secret donations

[woolybananasbrother]

Compulsory voting then?

[Gluestick]

Having just about run out of "philanthropists" to support their sheenanigans, now, politicians want us, the long suffering tax payer to fund their games and nonsense!

Anyone who really thinks that public funding of political parties will end deceit, chicanery and the rest is with respect, dreaming.

If one examines the US political model (which has been almost slavishly copied in the UK since Thatcher), then they will fairly quickly grasp how despite caps on spending, various avoidance techniques have been developed, such as PACs (Political Action Committees).

Washington DC is awash with professional lobbyists, representing a raft of Special Interest groups, which include foreign sovereign states!

Increasingly, precisely the same thing has happened here.

Probably worst of all are the legions of "Special Advisers", who are working on political matters such as statistics, used to "Prove" how well the party in office is doing.

My wife until two years ago worked for the largest  management consultants in the World at the time and they had skads of top dollar consultants and partners permanently ensconced in various ministries, all paid, of course, out of the public purse.

Their awesome costs (It's all a matter of public record and the annualised costs have been published many times for those who really want to know: and not in the Daily Wail, either!) of course, then don't figure in the political funding records.

I have never objected to paying people who are really good at their job: I have always objected to paying idiots who simply pretend they are good at their job!

I fear that 2008 will demonstrate to the great British public how smoke and mirrors and ongoing rhetoric with the rolling and repetitive phrase "Prudence!" will be shown as no substitute for competent economic and social management.

 

 

[Ron Avery]

[quote user="Gluestick"]

Having just about run out of "philanthropists" to support their sheenanigans, now, politicians want us, the long suffering tax payer to fund their games and nonsense!

[/quote]

and subsidise their bloody children[:-))]  Look  at this fiddling bar steward, is the worst case yet? Or is George Osborne going to say why he was "given" £500,000 by City banks perhaps[Www]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7212990.stm

[woolybananasbrother]

Yes, whoever the MP is, he should be suspended, tried and if necessary imprisoned, deprived of his pension and other perks. The issue is not party political. How about Blair and Ecclestone? And have you noticed how Murdoch is building a head of steam against the BBC. All in the hands of the Man Not Fit To Lead.

[Russethouse]

I believe the MP in question has been suspended from the House for a short period.

As for George Osborne, didn't they ask advice on this and were given a less than clear  reply by the House of Commons authorities ?

Perhaps Serena Rothschild has a "thing" for George ?[;-)][;-)]

[woolybananasbrother]

We will never know. Proves the point though.