These are strange times indeed in Westminster where MPs are under fire for daring to spend tax payer’s money and at the same time MPs are considering ways of restricting income and therefore spending on political campaigning. How often have activists heard the phrase “we only hear from you at election time” or “I have never heard from my councillor or MP”? And yet we are led to believe that and the public are very concerned about the amount of money political parties raise and spend on campaigning and elections. Are our law makers saying ‘we want our parties to be engaged locally but don’t spend any money doing it”?

The cornerstone of our democracy is that everyone has a choice, to vote or not to vote and to donate and not to donate. The rules on donations are now so draconian it inhibits donations from the ordinary person in the street up to the large business. Is not the answer too rely on the good sense of the public, if they are concerned about where a candidate gets money for a campaign from then don’t vote for them!

The electorate like to be communicated with in a myriad of ways, some are expensive(advertising and tv broadcasts) and some are cheap (newsletters and the internet) and as Lynton Crosby laid out in his Total Politics interview... it’s the message that is most important

One final thought is that do we really believe that money buys elections?.... at a national level Conservatives and Labour battle it out but polls show that voting intentions do not changed markedly and at a local level Liberal Democrats and Independents get elected on a shoe string campaign spend.