We, the undersigned, petition the Prime Minister to leglislate for state only funding for political parties represented in individual UK parliaments, assemblies and local councils, with funding in proportion to the number of seats held except that the first and second highest should be reversed.
No individual or organisation should be under any impression that it can buy influence or honours by providing direct funding, whether as a gift or a loan. Parties which do not have any representatives in any given legislature should be able to receive external funding, but all gifts or loans from any one individual or organisation totalling more than, say, £1,000 in any one year should be published. A commission should be established to determine the required level of funding per representative in each parliament, assembly and council. The point of interchanging the funding level for the largest and next largest party is to avoid having one party stay in power for very long periods when they might not do so in the absence of any funding at all. I would suggest that this scheme be paid for by a 50% income tax rate, applied at the highest possible threshold level.
This petition closed on Friday 7 March 2008 without having attracted any support at all. The creator was left in a minority of one. Here’s your chance to comment on this petition.