Author Archives: Dave Smithson

Dave Smithson

Opinion: Party funding plans to be kicked into the long grass – but what’s the alternative?

By Dave Smithson | Sun 27th November 2011 - 9:54 am

Proposals from the Committee on Standards in Public Life for state funding of political parties were kicked into the long grass by all three major players before the report was even officially published.

Reaction from various interested sources and commentators has been almost unanimously opposed to the idea with some, notably the Taxpayers’ Alliance, outraged by the proposals.

The key thrust of most of the arguments against the plan is simply that the time is wrong to burden tax payers with state funding of politic parties at a time when so many budgets are being cut, jobs being lost and deficits being …

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