This topic comes from a point I raised in the 'Should smoking be banned' thread. I was wondering whether the Labour Party received monies from the tobacco industry and if so would this influence voting on the bill to ban smoking in public places.

Apparently www.electoralcommission.org.uk gives details of political donations. Mr Sainsbury gave the Labour Party £2.5m over the first 3 mths of this year. I can't believe that some favours aren't expected for that, infact to me it stinks.

How can our governments be trusted to act in the best interests of its people with sums of money like that floating about :?:

Surely political parties should be funded centrally with each party having the same amount to spend on getting their message across.
This would be much fairer, give smaller parties the same chance and avoid MP's being compromised.

And for any trade union bashers out there, yes I think that their contributions should be stopped also. Though I can see the traditional link there as the Labour Party was born out of the trade union movement. Any thoughts an this???

I am not sure about the ruling but I would have thought that All donations over a certain amount would surely have to be declared. If this isn't the case then I certainly think it should be. In America apparently money donated to political parties doesn't after be declared which I think is wrong and needs adressing. The major corps have always bank rolled Governments after all they are really the ones that pull the strings.