Public Funding For Political Sins

I do not find the subject of party political donations of particular importance or interest. It is a relatively minor and trivial issue when you consider just how much else is wrong with the way our country is being governed.

Yet, without wishing to dwell for particularly long on what has become a media soap-opera issue, I believe it is worth briefly reflecting upon the underlying consequences that this week’s events will undoubtedly have for us all.

Now, it seems quite clear that within the past few days, Gordon Brown and the Labour party have been attempting to switch the focus of media scrutiny from their recent illegal misdoings to that of party funding. The decision by the Prime Minister to discuss political ‘transparency’ strikes me as that of a man desperately trying to make the most out of a bad situation – but then really this is as much as to be expected.

As it stands, the Conservative party currently desires to break the longstanding link between the Trade Unions and the Labour party, while conversely Labour wishes to remove wealthy Conservative party donors including Michael Ashcroft and Irvine Laidlaw from the marginal seat equation.

Yet, while solutions to the supposedly urgent problem of illegal donations that were previously touted included a cap on individual donations and electoral spending limits, in shifting the media spotlight from solely his party to that of how all parties are funded, Gordon Brown has once again allowed the old idea of public funding for political parties to rear its head.

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Nothing Has Changed So Why The Fuss?

Yesterday, Gordon Brown ended months of constant media speculation by informing the BBC that he would not call an early General Election this year or next, unless extraordinary circumstances arose.

Personally I thought that Mr Brown would call an early election. If I was him, I would have wanted to secure a mandate to do things differently to the previous manifesto I had been elected under.

However, that said, I am not Gordon Brown, and since he will not be doing anything substantially different to his predecessor Tony Blair (just trying desperately to appear different,) and it’s not as though he’s sticking that closely to the current Labour manifesto anyway by refusing to hold a Referendum on the EU Constitution – it therefore can be assumed he probably does not need a new mandate after all.

Today, Gordon Brown claimed that even if he had chosen to call an early election, he would have won it. While he is probably right of course, in his assumption there is an underlying arrogance – believing and naturally assuming that he and his party would win. But then, as has been pointed out many times before, the underlying electoral system favours Labour maintaining power, and there is very little sign of that irregularity changing any time in the foreseeable future.

It does however seem extremely dubious that just the day after two opinions polls were released in national papers showing the Conservatives neck and neck with, or ahead of Labour, Gordon Brown announces that he wishes to give the British people a chance to experience his ‘vision’ for the country and cancels out an early poll. Coincidence? I think not.

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An Early Election Looms

Speculation continues to grow over whether Gordon Brown will call an early election in the autumn after a ‘bounce’ for him and the Labour party in the opinion polls.

Money and donations are rapidly flooding the Labour party’s coffers, which leaves me in little doubt that, if necessary, Gordon Brown would have no trouble in financing an election campaign within the next year.

The Conservative party and David Cameron have underestimated Gordon Brown for some time now, previously attempting to portray him as an ‘analogue Chancellor in a digital age’. Many of them seem to have forgotten that Gordon Brown was just as much the architect of New Labour as Tony Blair. He knows the ways of spin and manipulating the press who are currently content to feed from his hand as they have done for the past ten years.

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Foot And Mouth Returns

A second outbreak of foot and mouth has been confirmed inside the Government’s surveillance zone in Surrey, and it now looks pretty likely that the initial outbreak will be traced back to one of the nearby government laboratories.

Despite Flash Gordon to the rescue; returning from his holiday on the south coast of England, it would appear that he and the Labour Government have still not fully learnt from the catastrophic mistakes they made six years ago.

The livestock culled in this month’s first outbreak were taken all the way to an incinerator near Yeovil, which was surely an unnecessary risk that could have led to spreading the disease. What’s more, so I’m told, the Government has not yet closed local footpaths in the outbreak area, so walkers could possibly spread the infection more widely if not careful.

That said, these are still early days, and I hope for the sake of the rural and farming communities across the country that the relatively swift action taken will prevent the returning sight of burning pyres throughout Britain.

If not, and the outbreak is eventually traced back to either the government laboratory, or the private company licensed by the government, then there will surely be hell to pay.