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January 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
By
James Chapman
Last updated at 12:03 AM on 3rd January 2012
Cross-party talks on capping donations to political parties will start within weeks in the wake of controversy over the latest New Year’s honours list.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will announce an aggressive attempt to force all three main parties to accept a donations limit, coupled with new restrictions on spending during elections and more flexible rules on the use of existing state funding of politics.
Radical proposals by sleaze watchdogs late last year have been rejected as politically unacceptable, since they would involve £100million more in taxpayers’ money going to political parties to compensate for a £10,000 donations cap.
Call for reform: An overhaul of the donations system is being instigated by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg
Government sources told the Daily Mail that Mr Clegg will now press for a limit to be imposed even if there is no increase in state funding to sweeten the pill. He, David Cameron and Ed Miliband are understood to have agreed in principle to open discussions on such a move.
Reform has been given a new urgency in Tory circles by the reaction to the inclusion of four party donors in the New Year’s honours. Paul Ruddock and Doug Ellis both received knighthoods and James Wates and James Lupton were handed CBEs.
Between them, the four men gave gave almost £1million to the Tories, with Mr Ruddock giving more than £500,000 between 2003 and 2011.
Though they were honoured for their work for the arts and for charity, the controversy has prompted Labour allegations of cronyism and convinced some senior Conservatives that future sleaze allegations are inevitable without radical changes to party funding.
Honoured: Paul Ruddock (left) and Doug Ellis were both honoured in the New Year. Both also made substantial donations to the Conservative Party
‘Over the next couple of months, cross-party discussions will begin,’ said one senior Liberal Democrat. ‘Everyone accepts that in the current spending environment, any increase of state funding to political parties is not a flier.
‘But that isn’t an excuse for parties not to reform. All of us have had our problems with donors and all three leaders know party funding is a scandal waiting to happen.
‘The latest honours controversy is a reminder to everyone of the potential for controversy. Both Labour and the Tories are going to have to give ground, whether it’s on union funding or donations from wealthy supporters. They both say they want to change the status quo but not if it affects them.
Contributors: James Wates (left) and James Lupton were handed CBEs
‘In a better economic environment, an argument could be made for more state funding, but as that’s not the case at the moment we are going to have to improve things substantially in other ways – and there is no way of doing it without the three main political parties all agreeing to give up some money.’
The source said Mr Clegg would propose a cap on donations – probably higher than the £10,000 limit proposed by Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the committee on standards in public life, who drew up plans for an extension of state funding to compensate.
It would be coupled with a new cap on spending by parties at election time to reduce the amount of money they require, and an overhaul of the existing system of state funding.
Political parties already receive millions of pounds a year from the taxpayer, including so-called ‘short money’, which helps fund opposition activities, ‘Cranborne money’, which pays for work in the House of Lords, special advisers’ salaries, grants for policy development and cash for direct mailshots by MPs.
Party political broadcasts, which broadcasters show for free, would also cost millions if parties had to pay for them.
Loosening the rules on the use of existing funding streams, Government sources say, could help persuade parties to sign up to a donations cap.
Tory sources say they cannot contemplate a donations cap unless Labour agrees that trades unions should have to require members to ‘opt in’ to affiliation fees going to the party.
Sir Christopher said: ‘For as long as you can make political donations, when there is a coincidence between honours and donors you get this sort of story.
‘It implies corruption even when there isn’t any. It is unsatisfactory. It is bad all round. They risk bringing it [the honours system] into disrepute. This is why we need to reform the system because donating to political parties should neither bring an honour nor be a bar to receiving an honour.
‘For as long as we have a system where the parties depend on very large donors, you will continue to get stories like this which are very bad for confidence in the political system and unfair to donors who do give for altruistic notions.’
His committee proposed that from 2015 there should be £3-per-vote state funding for the parties, which would total £23m a year over five years.
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