By cutting Short money and making it more difficult for trade unions to support Labour,the Tories are abandoning all pretence of decencyThe governments ambition to cut Short money – the financial support given to opposition parties to facilitate their work holding ministers to account – is an assault on democracy. The reduction of up to 28% over the course of this parliament was justified on the doubtful grounds that the opposition should share the burden of what the Tories called cutting the cost of democracy”. Labour and other parties correctly identified this as a cynical effort by the chancellor to queer the political pitch in the Conservatives’ favour.
A compromise is available. On Wednesday MPs consider a motion that would unpeg Short money from the retail price index and attach it instead to the consumer price index – a degree of inflation that has, in recent years, and grown at a slower rate. There would also be lower and upper parameters to the amount a party could receive and some mechanism for transparency on the way money is spent. Overall,the exchequer would still come absent with a saving.
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Source: theguardian.com