Monday, April 03, 2006

State funding of political parties

Given that the revelations about 'loans', cash for peerages and other dodgy financial transactions are big news, the idea that state funding of political parties is a way of making politicians clean is once more on the agenda. Is it me, or does the idea of paying politicians to keep honest a complete nonsense?

Looking around at the countries which do fund poltical parties doesn't fill me with confidence. France, Germany, Italy...all countries with poor records when it comes to political corruption and scandal.

What's more, how is this supposed to make the public more interested and engaged in politics? Paying for it with our taxes doesn't make me engaged, it makes me enraged. If politicians are really interested in making politics relevant than they should give back power, not stuff their faces deeper into the trough.

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