Online Questions & Answers with Hayden Phillips on party funding

How did you work that one out? - Campaigning bad Thing

Posted by TonyP on October 30th 2006

In the interim assessment, (page 17 amongst others) you state that it can be ibferred that wanting to reduce spending on campaigning can be seen as meaning that campaigning is a bad thing!

How did that bit of logic come about?

Surely , all that reducing the amount of money for campaigning is about is -
If you need to wrap your arguments in expensive glossy spin, then your arguments can't be up to much in the first place.

By reducing the amount spent, it would force campaigners to do cheap things, like talk to voters on the street (I personally saw my MP - candidate MP - once, during the last general election, and that was in Croydon (I live in Darlington, Co. Durham)), to hold meeting to explain what it is they think, to get thenselves onto local TV news programs. That sort of thing.

regards
Tony P

This question is now closed.

I am personally keen to

Posted by Sir Hayden Phillips on 30/10/2006 - 14:05

I am personally keen to avoid a position which encourages people to think that political campaigning is somehow a bad thing. Whatever criticisms people may have about some aspects of campaigning it is essentially about informing the public, debating the issues and involving people. However I am quite sympathetic to your view about the possible value of reducing the amount spent. Indeed I made it a particular objective of this review that we should try to ensure that political parties compete on the basis of policies and competence and not on the money that they might have available.