party funding

after recent high profile scandals regarding party funding, for example those from foreign shores, or with particular business interests pumping millions into the conservative party, or the trade unions doing similar to the labour party, is it not time to change the way political parties are funded so that all parties can play on a level playing field.

some politicians are looking into state funding,and a cap for donations, would this be fairer? would it also help the smaller parties gain better and fairer representation?

Well would you rather party funding came out of taxpayer's pockets? Because that's about the only alternative

if it meant that all views will get heard and a fairer more democratically elected system then yes as a tax payer i would be prepared to fund it, perhaps we could offset this cost with all the billions we give away each year to foreign aid programmes and the Eu.

Yeah because stopping aid is the solution to everything

In theory it would be nice, but practically it is sort of impossible. The thing is where else is the money going to come from?

And whilst it doesn't seem that fair proportionately the amount each party receives is roughly comparable to the amount of public support they enjoy, so it actually works out quite equal.

Do you have rules on how much one interest group can give to a party? Or rules on who can donate to a party?

No to the former, yes to the latter to an extent.

All donations have to be declared though, so if, for example, a tobacco pressure group donate millions of pounds to Labour, and suddenly their policy changes to stop restricting smoking in public places then it would be extremely politically damaging and if there is a direct link proved then illegal.

So do you guys have crazy tons of advertising when elections come around? With our supreme court just lifting the limit on how much a corp can give I think that there will be a crazy amount of ads for the next election.

Not really. The TV and radio are legally required to give equal amounts of airtime to the parties so advertising isn't huge. You get leaflets through the door and the occasional "Party Politcal Broadcast"

Not that much, I was in America during the Bush - Kerry election and the amount there was astonishing.

We have sort of well placed advertising, not so much on tv, but quite a bit in political journals, newspapers, billboards etc.

In the UK each party, large and small, have party election broadcasts of aprox five minutes that are shown on the BBC and other channels.

What I've noticed about this election is the use of the internet to generate support etc, particularly in favour of Labour. I think the Tories have tried but it hasn't worked, whilst twitter has been in overdrive with anti-Conservative pro-Labour hype, adverts, trending topics etc.

I've heard a decent chunk of Labour's money has gone into maintaining these platforms as they seem to be working. There was a study in the Guardian recently which suggested Twitter users are twice as likely to vote Labour than the general populace and considerably more likely to vote Lib Dem and Greens, whilst less than half as likely to vote Conservative, BNP or UKIP.

Is that an issue that some people want to change? Having a donation limit.

Not as far as I know. The current government have looked at it and the Tories keep mouthing off about Labour's relationship with the trade unions but that's it really.

I'm unsure if it would make much of a difference, the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives all have enough money to advertise and operate successfully and they are the only three parties that matter.

They all matter. Parties might soon be completely state funded. Now what do ya say to that?

Like that would actually have a major effect. Before Labour it was practically a 2-party system. At the moment it's 3 and unless something drastically changes in British politics as a whole then that's not changing anytime soon.