Getting big money out of politics
Posted by David Howarth, MP for Cambridge, at 14:32, Mon 5 January 2009:
Dear all,
As we go into the New Year, I thought you might be interested in an update on my work in Parliament, and in particular on a government Bill for which I am acting as lead spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.
My recent stint on the committee which considered the Political Parties and Elections Bill was, to put it mildly, a less than rewarding experience. The original impetus for this Bill came from the string of scandals which created a crisis of trust in politics – including the cash for honours investigation and relevations about the donations of wealthy individuals which left none of the main parties untouched.
The Bill was supposed to implement the widespread reforms agreed in cross-party talks – but in fact it does no such thing. Despite some welcome improvements to the Electoral Commission's powers to investigate breaches of the rules, and some fairly weak changes regarding transparency of donations, it does nothing to tackle the basic issue: taking big money out of politics.
When the Bill was discussed in Committee, over 200 amendments were tabled. Only nine of these related to reform of donations and spending limits, and they were all tabled by the Liberal Democrats. And it gets worse: the government's decision to push these nine amendments to the back of the agenda and the Conservatives' time-wasting over dozens of nitpicking alterations colluded to ensure that our amendments were not even reached. So the public bill committee charged with scrutinising reform of the law on party funding spent hours considering the precise detail of the Electoral Commission's new powers to impose fines, and not a single minute discussing the merits of caps on donations or on party political spending. I will continue to press for these vital issues to be debated when the Bill returns to the House of Commons. Politicians should be able to put aside partisan concerns to address the wider issues of public trust in the political process. Sadly, on this occasion, interest in the status quo appears to have been too deeply entrenched.
As ever, please do not hesitate to contact me with your views on these or other issues, or visit the website for updates and details of surgeries: http://www.davidhowarth.org.uk.
With best wishes for a happy and peaceful New Year,
David Howarth MP
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Posted by Neale Upstone, 10:12, Thu 8 January 2009: (Is this post abusive?) #
Yet again, our supposed democracy is maintained as a plutocracy. When are we going to get out on the streets about this one.
See http://politicalfundingwatch.blogspot.com for more info.