The current way in which a political party gets funding is predominantly by donations, either from wealthy individuals or big business. In the case of Labour, around 8% of its costs are paid for by party members' subscriptions, with affiliation fees from unions contributing only around 27%. Donations make up the remaining two-thirds. For the Conservatives, the ratio is much higher, with around 90% of their funding coming from political donations. Even the Liberal Democrats find donations outnumber subscriptions by about two to one.

The disadvantage of this current system is that it leaves the political party in power in a venerable position to sleaze even John Prescott has admitted that allegations of sleaze relating to large business donations are a

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