Taxpayer-funded political parties: the end of representative democracy?

Priti Patel makes the case against further taxpayer funding of political parties:

However, increased levels of public subsidies for political parties will compromise those efforts as political parties would rely more on the taxpayer than the voluntary support of their members, which runs the risk of political parties becoming detached from their membership and from local associations. 

It is the result of that detachment which should be of concern: the membership will lose influence over policy at an ever-increasing rate as the executive has less and less need of membership dues or activist participation. 

Should party funding via taxation take hold, once membership levels drop below some tipping point, activists will be hired by parties instead of their numbers swelling voluntarily from the grass roots.  Thus, a whole new cottage industry of political influence-peddlers will be spawned.

As the contribution of membership fees from the public declines, so the parties will push for a greater portion of the taxpayer pot. Thus the chasm between grassroots and the executive will grow - again, at an ever-increasing rate.  At which point, it could hardly be said that parties are representative of the people.

If parties are not representative of the people, then it will make little sense to the electorate to elect a party at a general election, rather than individual candidates.  Once that penny drops, the bottom will fall out of party politics, breaking the back of "representative democracy" and calling its democratic legitimacy into question.

This anti-democratic proposal is typical of the Orwellian 'Liberal' 'Democrat' tendency.

Those who are for this soviet-type madness have been pushing the envelope for some time. Since they have succeeded in getting incremental change pushed through in their preferred direction of travel, they might imagine that the public has not noticed or does not care about the issue.

However, they should be mindful that the public is never the less watching, gathering evidence and waiting, as the patient, tolerant British are wont to do. If the Orwellian Party push it too far, it will explode in their faces and the Conservative Party would be well-advised to take note.

Conservatives are doubtless aware that taxpayer-funded political parties are accepted as normal in Europe - so no prizes for guessing where the Yellows got this idea from.

Related:

• Party funding insanity - Raedwald
• Sir Christopher Kelly's Committee report