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Communications Allowance

I have a lot to say, but I shall compress it because I know that so many colleagues on both sides of the House want to make a contribution. I begin by saying that what happens in Britain is not unique. I know a lot about Canada—I chair the all-party Canada group. Canadians can mail their MPs without putting a stamp on the envelope. Canadian MPs can send out annual reports; they can do what we do here, so what happens in Britain is not unique. The big problem that we face is that there are effectively no spending limits except in the immediate run-up to a general election—in the six months before it. Before that, however, anything goes. We have heard about Streatham. Perhaps I am making a party political point here, but my jaw dropped last night when my colleague, the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love), told me that his Conservative challenger spent £142,000 in the last three months of 2009—that is documented in Electoral Commission figures. There is no level playing field—I hate using that term. It is possible, and we are seeing it happen, to buy an election. We heard about the difficultly of contacting constituents in small inner-city seats. Many years ago, I was the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council and I know the constituency like the back of my hand. There is a flip side, however: my Pendle constituency is 65 square miles. I do not know how many Hammersmith and Fulhams you could put in that. It is impossible to contact my constituents by just walking up the farm track—there are not the hours in the day. The way to contact people in a far-flung rural constituency is to pay people—Royal Mail—to do it.