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Lee Griffin About Lee: Former students' union president and intermitent blogger since the turn of the century, who's aim is to promote objective thinking and a break from partisan politics when discussing the issues of the day. Contact him.

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Staring too closely into the mirror: political donation row

Wed 16th Jan 2008 – (0 Comments)

A quick one here, but it seems that two Labour MP's have decided to check for double standards in the Tory ranks given just how fervently they are pursuing Peter Hain over the ambiguity of donations he received during the campaign to be deputy leader of the Labour party. It seems as though eighty Tory MP's have been reported to be investigated over their donations.

Obviously I don't want to get into the muck flinging that will come of this, but if it is true it is at least kind of admirable that the Tories are trying to hide their abuse of the system rather than blindly stumbling into trouble. It is being said that current rules on individual donations are impossible to enforce with "unincorporated associations" allowing groups of people to stay nameless and potentially donate more money than individuals should be allowed to.

It really is about time that this sort of thing stopped, and the only way for it to truly stop is for full transparency. Organisations and individuals must be declared to a public register of interests so that no-one can hide behind anonymity through such classifications. But if that is the case then I have to ask, what exactly is the big problem with people donating money to whom they wish in the first place? Is the state of this country such that if publicly declared big business and individuals wanted to bribe the government they could do so without us stopping them?

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Touches on: Politics, Post, Labour, Tory, Political donations

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So what the hell is going on, Labour are slumping in the polls and yet those most naturally in their shadow able to take their place (the Lib Dems) are failing to capitalise in the polls. And even though the Tories are enjoying high times so much they must think it's the 80's all over again (in more ways than one) they have failed to deliver one serious or credible attack against the government that would show them to be the true heir's to the throne. So to speak. Anyway, on with this weeks Politalks. NSFW as usual, transcript can be found if you go through to read more!