Tag Archives: campaign finance

Denis Mollison

The best democracy money can buy

By Denis Mollison | Mon 17th March 2025 - 5:08 pm

To take just a few recent examples: Musk offering $100 million to Reform, a Health Minister supported by substantial funding from private health companies, and – not quite so recent – millions wasted in Covid contracts given to party donors. The influence of big money on our politics is greater than ever.

Yet `The majority of the public support stringent measures to crack down on the perception that political influence can be bought, including capping, or even banning political donations. Politicians are out of step with the electorate on this issue.’

So says a recent report on Money and Democracy from the
Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research (an offshoot of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution).

Liberal Democrats could reasonably protest that we are in step with the electorate on this – our 2024 Manifesto included a commitment to `Take big money out of politics by capping donations to political parties’. But what the ICDR report offers is a clear analysis of the fundamental problem, and some simple principled solutions. As they say ` The existing rules on political finance are excessively complex and fail to address the core problem’.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 11 Comments
Mark Valladares

31 October 2018 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 31st October 2018 - 11:11 pm

It’s Halloween, and the Press teams on either side of Offa’s Dyke are still working away…

Don’t Let Down Welsh Farmers – Welsh Lib Dems

Following the closure of the Welsh Government’s Brexit and Our Land consultation, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have urged the Welsh Government to carefully listen to the views of farmers and ensure farmers are not let down as they begin to consider their response.

The Welsh Government’s proposed model for supporting farmers and land managers after Brexit involves removing any aspect of direct support and instead focusing on promoting economic resilience and public goods.

The Welsh Liberal Democrat response to …

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    I do think kindness is a good quality, and we need more of it in politics, but attaching 'kindness' to particular policies is more complex than I think you ackn...
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    213 votes across 5 seats. Hard to see a positive here....
  • cim
    "And we are witnessing in Britain illiberal movements on the left and the right, with Farage as a pluto-populist (a politician financed by the ultra-wealthy who...
  • Hywel
    @Tim - Yes I saw the source and looked at it though it didn't make a lot of sense given my level of knowledge of this. But taking that as correct I was curio...
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    @Nonconformistradical - "If you’re implying all our electricity should be from renewable resources (ideally yes) how quickly can that be achieved?" ...