eurealist.co.uk

There’s a story going round that taxpayers already fund political parties through “Short money”, so state funding of political parties would be nothing new. (Another case of the false “we already do X, so we might as well go on and do Y” argument.)

But Short money was only intended to assist MPs outside the governing party in carrying out an officially recognised function - providing an effective parliamentary opposition. It should not be used for extra-parliamentary purposes, such as running a party organisation or political campaigning.

If it is being used in that way, that is an abuse which can and should be stopped. Just as government ministers should not have been allowed to use public resources for the so-called “Big Conversation”, which was not an official government consultation but was only intended to help the Labour Party refine its election manifesto. Notably the Tories had nothing to say about that.

This has come up recently with respect to the government’s rotten idea of providing Short money to Sinn Fein MPs who refuse to take the oath of allegiance and therefore cannot take their seats:

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Hoon: “Crucially, certain activities will specifically not attract financial assistance. Those include political campaigning and fundraising, membership campaigns, advertising, personal or private business and constituency business.”

Field: “Short money is specifically paid to support functions carried out in the Chamber by members of parties when representing major policies.”

Opik: “This is a key point, because we need clarity. We understand that Short money relates to activities conducted within the House.

May: “Short money is not available to Members who have not sworn the oath because it is designed to offer assistance with parliamentary duties, specifically to assist an Opposition party in carrying out its parliamentary business”.from Dennis Cooper

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