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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
George Monbiot

I have a cure for our ailing democracy: ban all donors, British and foreign. Run politics on membership fees

Image: Guardian Design/Alamy/Getty

There’s a sensible rule in British politics: it should not be funded by foreign donors. Democracy is meaningless if a country isn’t run at the behest of its people. But the rule is riddled with loopholes. Those who have done the most to keep them open are those who most loudly assert their patriotism. Noisy “patriots” are always the first to sell us out to offshore capital.

Here are some of the tricks they use. One is the “unincorporated association”. This refers to groups that don’t have to open business bank accounts, file financial statements, register with any official body or even give themselves a name. They’re as transparent as the Berlin Wall on a cloudy day. Astonishingly, these associations are a legal channel for campaign finance in the United Kingdom.

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