Nick Robinson

Nick Robinson, the Tories friend in the BBC, has come up with this list of reasons why we shouldn't introduce funding reform.

The following ideas have been graded in priority order:

1. You'll pay for it - He has a point, political parties will become flat broke and the taxpayer, under this government, will be forced to pay the rest (estimated at £46 million)

2. The dawn of 'soft' money - They do it in the US. Hide wads of soft money donations behind shady financial structures. We CANNOT allow this to happen in this country, if someone is going to buy a peerage let them do it openly for all the world to see.

3. It will ruin the Labour Party - well ok Nick, let's not get carried away, perhaps there is something in this after all. If the unions can't finance Labour they're surely gonna be F$%&ed.