[St Charles Owl]

I strongly believe that money expended by political parties for general elections should be regulated by the state and possibly even provided for that set purpose with set amounts in place. Hence it wouldn't matter how many donations are made to political parties, a democratic principle of regulating spending to a reasonable amount, and nothing more than that, should've been implemented years ago and be the subject of review now and again.

I would certainly back that idea but I am not sure whether the parties could agree a formula to calculate how much money they each get. In the past I have seen the amount of money based on number of MPs (not really fair) but that favours the current Government over other parties. Probably the fairest system would be based on the number of seats each party is contesting but with the number of parties that stand in some constituencies that would get cumbersome as well. Its been a big topic of conversation over here for the past few elections, mainly because of the sheer amount of money being spent!! I suppose we both live in democracies where if we want to donate money to help someone get elected then we are free to do so, and in practice there isn't much wrong with that so I cannot see the main parties passing any laws that restrict contributions further than they already are.