Labour needs £10m to fight Tories, says David Blunkett

[AtW]

It is a joke that spending such a huge amount in a few key places will likely make all the difference and that many of us are disenfranchised by living in a safe seat of one colour or another.

The real (sad) joke is that there are still way too many places that would vote for Liebor despite all they did...

Polling 0% for them should be too high.

[AtW]

Better let them waste the money of their sponsors in a hopeless battle - Labour party and their money should be parted...

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Whilst

a) It is time for a change of government.
b) I would rather go on holiday with CyberTory than agree with taxpayer funding for political parties.

It is a joke that spending such a huge amount in a few key places will likely make all the difference and that many of us are disenfranchised by living in a safe seat of one colour or another.

[RichardCranium]

Why do they need money?

WHS.

One or both parties come out with this every general election. Then they start making noises about how political parties should be funded by the state. I.e., a two-party system all paid for by the taxpayer. At which point there will be no democracy left.

Anyway, isn't it a funny coincidence that the same bunch that fecked up the economy can't manage their own budgets? Tossers. But then, I can;t believe they want to win the election.

Go on, vote for an independent or a small party - teach the reds & the blues we want neither of them.

[HairyArsedBloke]

I was wondering the other day - could someone sue the Labour party for damages or something they by tie up some of their money somehow.

I suppose that if it was that easy then some dodgy lawyer would have been at it already.

[BrilloPad]

Why do they need money? Surely the success of their policies is enough to convince anyone to vote for them.

[AtW]

Labour needs to raise £10m in just three months from medium-sized donations to give itself a fighting chance in the general election, the former minister David *Blunkett, who is spearheading the party's pre-election fundraising campaign, admitted today.

The party has set up strict rules to ring-fence its day-to-day funding and avoid borrowing any money to fund the campaign so that it can safeguard its financial future after the election. But that means it has just 10 to 12 weeks to raise the £10m needed to compete with the £18m Conservative war chest, he said.

A fundraising board, chaired by Blunkett and including senior figures such as Neil Kinnock and Alastair Campbell, met for the first time last week to plan its pre-election strategy.

Blunkett revealed details of the campaign ahead of a speech he will give to the thinktank Progress tomorrow, in which he will accuse the Conservatives of planning to withdraw the state and politicians from vast swaths of social policy in much the same way that Margaret Thatcher abandoned the economy to market forces in the 1980s.

He also claimed that the Labour manifesto needed to strengthen the political accountability of public services, and propose the right of recall of inefficient leading public servants.

The fundraising drive will be based on "cascade" campaign in which current supporters solicit more donations from contacts and friends. The aim is to build up an extensive network of people willing to give between £10,000 and £20,000. Prominent business people as well as entertainers such as Eddie Izzard and Jo Brand attended the first meeting last week.

Blunkett said he would appeal to the British public's fairmindedness so that Labour's spending muscle can be put on "more of an even keel with the Tories".

He said: "I think we might as well be honest about it: the Tories are going to outspend us and the question for us is can we raise enough money … to actually make it possible to at least neutralise the enormity of what they've been putting particularly into individual seats. We have to ask the public to think whose voice is being heard on whose behalf," he said.

The Conservatives are understood to be on course to have a campaign chest of £18m – the maximum amount allowed in the election period starting 1 January – whereas Labour has about £8m secured so far, mainly from unions. Blunkett said: "We do really need to raise £18m to run a proper general election campaign."

He said Labour had missed its chance to complain about the large donations made by Lord Ashcroft to the Conservative party – some of which are now subject to an Electoral Commission inquiry – as much of the money had already been spent in boosting the Tories in marginal seats. He said "the horse has bolted on Ashcroft", claiming the Tory peer had spent as much as £4m in local seats.

In his speech tomorrow Blunkett will attack Cameron's proposals to reduce the number of MPs, arguing that larger constituencies would mask the number of unregistered voters – traditionally more inclined to support the Labour party – therefore cementing any lead they might get in a general election. "It's based on superficial arguments about … cutting costs by reducing democracy but suddenly you find they are attempting to build in a majority for themselves by creating an imbalance between the different areas of the country," he said.

He said he would be making proposals to Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary who has been charged with writing the Labour manifesto, to boost people's engagement in politics by giving them the right to recall inefficient public servants. "That would help in restoring some confidence in politics," he said.

Asked what Labour would do if it did not raise the money, he said: "You cut your cloth according to what you've got. In theory you could run it on the amount the Lib Dems have done."

He said: "We want to go out fighting, not go into the bunker, that's why I'm against the core vote strategy because that's bunker mentality. We've got to go out and win people."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...eeds-10million