With Gordon Brown mentioning Lord Ashcroft no less than five times at Prime Minister's Questions today, it is clear that this 'Donor-gate' issue won't be dealt with until Cameron answers it himself.
But what can the Tory leader do? Admit there is a problem and he has to sack the millionaire and probably Hague too; don't say anything, you look weak and your poll ratings will probably continue to plummet.
So how about an announcement from white knights Iain Duncan Smith or Sir George Young on a five point plan to clean matters up going forward coupled with a stirring general speech on what democracy means to the UK from Cameron himself.
The five point plan could involve:
1) fixed four year term parliaments
2) no individual party donations of above £1000
3) state funding for election campaigns allocated out based on the popular vote of the last election (indirectly assisting with proportional representation)
4) a maximum election spend of £5m per party
5) implement a d'hondt based system to elect Lords on rolling 12 year terms rather than the house being stuffed by alternating PMs
It's just an idea, but I'm convinced Cameron needs to do something albeit with limited options at his disposal.
Salmond vs Trump
16 minutes ago
10 comments:
That sounds good, Jeff... but can we stop calling them Lords and giving them noble affectations?
Interesting suggestions.
How would the cap work though? For example, the Labour, Tories, Lib Dems stand across the whole of GB (and the Tories stand in NI as well now). Would their £5million limit apply to the SNP, or would the SNP/PC get a fractional cap (such as say 10%)?
.....or just expose the complete hypocrisy that lies at Labour's door.
Any info on Charlie Wheelan's bid to shoe horn UNITE union barons into safe seats.
How many workers have lost their jobs so fattie Wheelan can smoke cigars and rub his unsightly moles?
Wheelan, the man that links Brown's temper tantrums to bullying, Damian mcbride, the Scottish by elections and Unite's rather vocal attacks on the Scottish Government.
Denying the evidence before our very eyes, the unscientific Katrina Kaif insists that she is not hot & sexy.
She argues that audiences simply see actors in particular roles and keep them there. Her own screen persona.
She says, is one of being hot and sexy, whereas Vidya Balan, perhaps, has a persona that is pictured as ethnic.
[url=http://www.bollywood-latest.com/2010/03/katrina-kaif-is-not-hot-sexy/]
Katrina Kaif is Not Hot & Sexy[/url]
[url=http://www.bollywood-latest.com/]Bollywood News[/url]
Denying the evidence before our very eyes, the unscientific Katrina Kaif insists that she is not hot & sexy.
She argues that audiences simply see actors in particular roles and keep them there. Her own screen persona.
She says, is one of being hot and sexy, whereas Vidya Balan, perhaps, has a persona that is pictured as ethnic.
[url=http://www.bollywood-latest.com/2010/03/katrina-kaif-is-not-hot-sexy/]
Katrina Kaif is Not Hot & Sexy[/url]
[url=http://www.bollywood-latest.com/]Bollywood News[/url]
more labour problems:
http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=Anne+Moffat
http://blogsearch.google.co.uk/blogsearch?q=Anne+Moffat
What about a story on the trams?
What do Edinburgh citizens think now that the trams are not being built until 2056 and the Scottish government will not pay for it.
I can see a line being used at GE election time; we (SNP) told you after looking at the costs that the trams were expensive and unworkable but lib/lab/con promised you they could deliver on time and on budget.
When you are paying for this project for the next 20 years, and these guys want to do 3 or 4 more lines on the never never,
remember who told you it was NOT a good idea; not because we do not want trams, but because the numbers did not add up.
It will cost millions more to get it back up. This is a disaster that has now happened, it is not waiting to happen.
Swamp Edinburgh East and Edinburgh North and Leith with this message, adding that we cannot spend what we have to pay back for vanity projects that your average normal local people cannot afford to repay. Hospitals yes, schools yes, trams no.
Does the contract allow the builders to break their contract without recompansde to Edinburgh? We shall see.
The contractor's on London's underground repair are looking for a further £500million.
Where is Labour's screams of anguish?
Anon, in my mind all parties would have the same cap regardless of how many seats they would be contesting. This might assist the SNP, Greens, UKIP and, yes, the BNP but in many ways that is correcting an imbalance that already exists with the unrepresentative FPTP system.
I agree with the everything that you suggest but would go a bit further on the Lords.
There should only be 100 members and the members should be proportionate i.e. if Scotland has 5% of the UK's population then we have 5 members. You should only be allowed to stand if you are not a member of a political party and haven't been for a while and every vote would be a free vote.
Only then will we have a truly independent second legislative body. Either that or you just scrap it completely.
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