Financial muscle

IT is no real surprise to learn that the Conservative Party vastly outspent its opponents in marginal seats across Yorkshire at last year’s General Election.

The targeting of key constituencies such as Elmet and Rothwell, with large sums of Central Office money, was the campaign’s worst-kept secret, propelling Tory donor-in-chief Lord Ashcroft to a prominence he would probably have preferred to avoid.

Now the facts have been laid bare, it is fascinating to see the strategies each party employed in their desperate clamour for power. Certainly, similar tactics appear to have been employed by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats, albeit to a lesser extent.

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In an electoral system which places its emphasis on local constituency candidates being selected and supported by local party members, there is something incongruous about this centralised approach which can skew the scale of one party’s campaign until it bears little resemblance to its actual presence in the local area.

It would be much more preferable if mechanisms could be devised to place a greater onus on local parties raising their own funds in the future. Better too if there were greater transparency over how much is being spent, and where funds are coming from, at the time of an election – rather than 10 months after the event.

What is not clear, however, is just how effective this targeting of funds actually is.

For no amount of glossy pamphlets and gaudy billboard posters will ever be a replacement for genuine policies when it comes to winning public support.