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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Recent Comments

  • Judy Abel
    @David agree with those points. There are no checks and balances when it comes to how capital operates in our markets....
  • David Allen
    "I think you could claim that a dogmatic insistence on a single ownership model has failed." Fair point, up to a point. Certainly - as I mentioned - nationa...
  • Mick Taylor
    There seems to be a schizophrenic approach by our party when talking about high streets. On the one hand people bemoan the decline of high streets and on the ot...
  • David Raw
    @ theakes "But we have to attack them"...... But that assumes anybody is even listening to the Lib Dems these days............. Most of the time there seems ...
  • Jana
    I’m not sure about what is taught south of the border but most Scottish pupils are taught politics and some international relations as part of their upper pri...