A discussion on the financing of political parties is desperately needed: government is wasting more than money if it buries research on the difficult choices between public funding and capped donations

If political parties are to play their essential role in our democracy, we must ensure that they are funded appropriately. A recent report into party financing concludes that if we want to reduce donations, we have to cap them and therefore also extend public funding of parties. Justin Fisher fears that these radical conclusions will be largely ignored by government who are against any increase in the public funding of parties at this time of economic crisis.