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Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I have not taken part in the debates on this Bill before, but I hope that your Lordships will permit a small intervention. I listened to the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, which he described as a brief canter round the course. Having listened to all 13 minutes of it, I was stung into taking part by something that he said right at the beginning, which was that the £50,000 cap is agreed by all of us. I do not know whether that means the Labour Party, the Liberal party and the Front Bench of the Conservative Party, but it is certainly not agreed by me—not that that makes a great deal of difference. I can never understand why there is such a fuss about having a cap. It seems to me that either we have parties funded by the state—as the noble Lord, Lord Neill, said, that is now, fortunately, impossible—or we have them funded by people who support them. If people support their party, I cannot see why there should be limits on the amount by which they support it. It would therefore be a great mistake if we tried to cut down the support given, whether to the Labour Party or to the Conservative Party—or even if the Liberals can find a bit here or there. It would be a pity to cut the limit, because all that means is that everyone has to go chasing around finding more money elsewhere or, alternatively, running into deficit.