Comments on: Daily View 2×2: 4 March 2010 http://www.libdemvoice.org/daily-view-2x2-4-march-2010-18179.html Our place to talk - an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:46:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Niklas Smith http://www.libdemvoice.org/daily-view-2x2-4-march-2010-18179.html#comment-109165 Niklas Smith Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:20:50 +0000 http://www.libdemvoice.org/?p=18179#comment-109165 Oops, I thought the links would go to the pages I had up. Just select Liberal Democrats from the drop-down menu and search for "Nicholson" (not anything else) in "donor name" for the first link; for the second select Liberal Democrats and search for "Streatham" in the "Received by" box. Oops, I thought the links would go to the pages I had up. Just select Liberal Democrats from the drop-down menu and search for “Nicholson” (not anything else) in “donor name” for the first link; for the second select Liberal Democrats and search for “Streatham” in the “Received by” box.

]]> By: Niklas Smith http://www.libdemvoice.org/daily-view-2x2-4-march-2010-18179.html#comment-109164 Niklas Smith Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:18:37 +0000 http://www.libdemvoice.org/?p=18179#comment-109164 Strange that the Indy article doesn't actually give any information as to where the donations went, even though for donations of that size it is a matter of public record if they went to the constituency party (i.e. were spent locally) or the central party. All significant central party donations to local parties are also reportable. The Indy used the availability of these statistics when it did its <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ashcroft-money-casts-long-shadow-over-rivals-1912408.html" title="'Ashcroft money' casts long shadow over rivals" rel="nofollow">interesting report</a> on where the Ashcroft money was going. All it says is this: "Mr Nicholson is one of the biggest donors to the Liberal Democrats, who lag far behind the Tories and Labour in their ability to raise funds. He gave the party £57,300 in 2007, £104,894.64 in 2008 and £125,700 last year, a total of £287,894.64." I know that the Electoral Commission's search function is not perfect, but it doesn't take more than a few minutes to find all the relevant information. In fact, the register is <a href="http://registers.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/regdpoliticalparties.cfm?ec={ts%20%272010-03-04%2011%3A05%3A42%27}" title="Nicholson donations" rel="nofollow">here for all to see</a>. (N.B. two of the donations on the list actually come from Baroness Emma Nicholson, who is no relation as far as I know.) Mr Nicholson has given £47,994.64 to Streatham Liberal Democrats since his first donation on 7 May 2006 (14.5% of his total donations to the Liberal Democrats since 2003 of £330,599.64). The bulk of his donations went to the federal party, with a number going to the Kingston Borough party (where he was a councillor). Moving to the reportable donations <a href="http://registers.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/regdpoliticalparties.cfm?ec={ts%20%272010-03-04%2011%3A15%3A19%27}" title="Donations to Streatham Liberal Democrats" rel="nofollow">received by the Streatham party</a>, it has received £63,319.64 of reportable donations since 2001, <i>none of which came from the federal party</i> - in fact all donations were from individuals. Thus three quarters of the local party's reportable donations came from Mr Nicholson, but none of his money has been recycled through other parts of the party to be spend in Streatham. So there's all the information; judge him as you will. Can I have a job at the Independent now? I can clearly do a better job than their researchers... Strange that the Indy article doesn’t actually give any information as to where the donations went, even though for donations of that size it is a matter of public record if they went to the constituency party (i.e. were spent locally) or the central party. All significant central party donations to local parties are also reportable. The Indy used the availability of these statistics when it did its interesting report on where the Ashcroft money was going.

All it says is this: “Mr Nicholson is one of the biggest donors to the Liberal Democrats, who lag far behind the Tories and Labour in their ability to raise funds. He gave the party £57,300 in 2007, £104,894.64 in 2008 and £125,700 last year, a total of £287,894.64.” I know that the Electoral Commission’s search function is not perfect, but it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to find all the relevant information.

In fact, the register is here for all to see. (N.B. two of the donations on the list actually come from Baroness Emma Nicholson, who is no relation as far as I know.)

Mr Nicholson has given £47,994.64 to Streatham Liberal Democrats since his first donation on 7 May 2006 (14.5% of his total donations to the Liberal Democrats since 2003 of £330,599.64). The bulk of his donations went to the federal party, with a number going to the Kingston Borough party (where he was a councillor).

Moving to the reportable donations received by the Streatham party, it has received £63,319.64 of reportable donations since 2001, none of which came from the federal party – in fact all donations were from individuals. Thus three quarters of the local party’s reportable donations came from Mr Nicholson, but none of his money has been recycled through other parts of the party to be spend in Streatham.

So there’s all the information; judge him as you will. Can I have a job at the Independent now? I can clearly do a better job than their researchers…

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