My blog on this occasion is not a particular dig against the Lib Dems but a serious view that some day someone will need to be brave enough to sort out once and for all this issue of political donations.
I do not know what will hapopen in this case but clearly the donor thinks they broke the rules. Could it lead to a fine or MP's having to recontest seats?
6 comments:
yes it is amazing how consevative jon the lib dem
Surely the point is that the Lib Dems are now getting into sleaze and back handed donations from foreign companies.
The Lib Dems would probably have accepted money from Saddam, because of their anti war stance, in the same way they take money from McDonalds!!
Oddly enough, Saddam did most of his mass-murdering in the 1980's, and this country lent him huge amounts of money to help.
Just remind me who was in power then?
Perhaps you would like to give equal prominence to the Electoral Commission's findings as reported by the BBC...
"Lib Dems in clear over donation
The Lib Dems said they had acted in good faith
The Electoral Commission has cleared the Liberal Democrats of wrong-doing over a £2.4m company donation it received before May's general election.
The watchdog's probe looked at whether the donation was "permissible", as electoral law requires donating firms to be registered and trading in the UK.
5th Avenue Partners was based in London but owned by a Swiss-based firm headed by Scottish financier Michael Brown.
The firm said it had relied on the Lib Dems to ensure its donation was proper.
The Liberal Democrats said they had acted in good faith with all donations.
The party's chief executive, Lord Rennard, welcomed the statement from the Electoral Commission.
The commission found it was "reasonable" for the party to regard the donation as having been permissible."
Happy to give it dominance, as you have done.
Unsurprisingly you missed out one of the commissions comments:
"But it added the Liberal Democrats should have made better checks."
What the LibDems omitted to say in their press statements was that although the Electoral Commissioners allowed them to keep the donation for the present, they only ruled that the Lib Dems were entitled to consider it permissible in the light of the present known facts. The facts were that the donor said the comapny was in business in the UK. The company has in fact failed to file its accounts. Unaudited accounts prepared by BDO Stoy Hayward show that the company had no turnover to 31 Dec 2004.
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