Funding political parties.

This article published by Channel 4 has some revealing details on the murky sources of funding for Britain’s main political parties. The stench of corruption is of course overpowering.

The article is understandably cynical, but not cynical enough.

For example there is no mention of the £18m of taxpayers’ money given by the last Labour government to sundry trade unions ostensibly for “training”, with those same unions subsequently “donating” £10m to the Labour Party.

So what the article calls “trade union donations” to the Labour Party should perhaps be re-named “money stolen from taxpayers”.

Nor is there any mention of taxpayers’ money being given to organisations that can be relied on to back one’s own party or oppose political parties one is opposed to. One small example of this is the taxpayer funded organisation “Hope not Hate” which campaigns against far right parties.

The article does mention the sale of peerages – sorry, I meant “the award of peerages to those who, coincidentally, have given large sums to one of the main political parties”.

But there was also no mention of the £2.4m that the Lib Dems got from a convicted fraudster, Michael Brown.

So next time you see a Lib Dem politician expressing views on crime, you may be tempted to reach for the puke bucket. Sorry to spoil what might otherwise have been a pleasant evening’s television viewing for you.