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The Observer | Comment | When the price is right

Very interesting atricle by Nick Cohen
Sunday August 29, 2004
The Observer

Snip

Think of how many raffles and discos ordinary party members would have to organise to raise Wheeler’s £500,000, Sykes’ £715,000 or Ondaatje’s £1m.

The result is a vicious circle. The big donors’ big cheques go to the parties’ headquarters in London. They strengthen the power of the centre, weaken local workers and fuel public suspicion of influence peddling. Party members sense their irrelevance. They drop out of politics and leave their parties more dependent on the big cheques from the big donors.

Next month the Electoral Commission will offer its proposals for reform. I hope they suggest cutting the cost of politics by banning billboard advertising and offering all kinds of incentives to politicians to seek small donations from ordinary citizens. I hope they’re ruthlessly radical because at the moment we’re looking at a future where public life will inevitably be run by an ever-shrinking coterie.

The Mandelsons and the Blunketts hang around the rich because they want to. Their successors may hang around the rich because they have to.