Douglas Carswell's Blog

Modernisers and the question of party funding

Here is what a group of MPs had to say about reforming party funding five years ago; 

“Traditionally, parties have been funded by the rich, the unions or the state ... their supporters treated as little more than footsoldiers. Now, in an effort to lessen the parties’ dependence on single donors, the danger is that state funding will be increased ... further alienating the people from their politicians ....

A far more attractive alternative is where parties are funded by multiple, smaller donations. Evidence from the US shows that with the internet, the role of small one-off political donations is becoming increasingly important. Web power has raised large sums of money ....  Instead of looking to the taxpayer to fund politics, political parties need to innovate and find ways to encourage large numbers of small donations.....

In the age of YouTube, established political parties may find that they [like businesses], face competition from new, nimble-footed competitors. Conventionally politicians needed costly and hierarchical party machines to get their messages across. They needed to brand themselves and their candidates for a mass market. .... 

This may well be about to change. The costs of communicating via the internet have tumbled, and almost anyone can today make their equivalent of a party political broadcast. Voters themselves are no longer the passive viewers of electronic news and entertainment, but consumers able to seek out the views and the information that they want. .......... This could have profound consequences not only in terms of how parties raise funds, but how they come to choose who represents them in elections.”

- The Localist Papers, Open Politics, Centre for Policy Studies and the Direct Democracy group of MPs, May 2007

Back to all posts