Comments on: Those Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q3, 2009)

By: Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #146

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #146 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:31:46 +0000

[...] Millennium’s blog reads like he has a top tax accountant advising him. Crazy idea. 4. Those Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q3, 2009) by Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice. Your quarterly cut-out-and-keep guide to the party’s [...]

By: Niklas Smith

Niklas Smith — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:22:22 +0000

Um, I searched for Alan Reid but came up with nothing. Am I doing something wrong or is the search function bad? Surprising to have this problem on an otherwise excellent website.

By: Malcolm Todd

Malcolm Todd — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:53:36 +0000

Actually, following the link given by Stephen, I find that Mr Christopher Nicholson (whoever he is) gave a total of £32,500 – it’s not easy to use that site, is it? The search by donor names function doesn’t seem to work at all.

By: Stephen Tall

Stephen Tall — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:09:51 +0000

This link.

By: Niklas Smith

Niklas Smith — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:51:16 +0000

Stephen, I can’t find the names of the top Lib Dem donors anywhere on the page you link to. Where do you get your information from?

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:03:30 +0000

This does admittedly look dodgey, but if more people were willing to donate to political parties then parties would not be driven to court financing from wealthy businessmen who (sometimes) have perculiarities on their record.

Furthermore, by donating to major political parties people would have more influence over the policies and leadership choices that parties make. I wish UK political parties could attract funding like President Obama was able to.

By: Stephen Tall

Stephen Tall — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:44:50 +0000

If those are the most generous Parliamentarians, most of them are giving in absolute terms less than I gave to my local party out of my councillor’s allowance when I was a councillor. Proportionately, it’s much less.

Don’t forget, Matthew, the figures above are only for the last quarter. Many other Parliamentarians may give at different times of the year, especially in the run-up to (or to pay off debts after) elections. That said, I think the generosity of elected and non-elected Parliamentarians, even proportionate to their different incomes, varies a lot.

By: Matthew Huntbach

Matthew Huntbach — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:31:47 +0000

If those are the most generous Parliamentarians, most of them are giving in absolute terms less than I gave to my local party out of my councillor’s allowance when I was a councillor. Proportionately, it’s much less.

I note today that the lead news item on Capital Radio and the Metro newspaper was some champion golfer from another country who had a minor car accident. This sort of thing is regarded as far more newsworthy than who pays the people who rule us to produce the publicity material they use to get elected. If these donation figures were reported anywhere in the press, I don’t recall seeing them.

Funny old world, isn’t it? Might it not be that those who run our newspapers and radio stations and the like quite like us to feel that sportsmen and talent shows and the like are the real news, so that they can quietly get on with draining this country dry and taking their profits to their tax havens without anyone much noticing?

Maybe if we could get more donations to put real news on stuff we put out, we could get people to see how rotten our country is and how it is run for the benefit of the few. Or maybe we’d just get donations from people who’d prefer us not to say that sort of thing.