Political Parties: Funding

My Lords, I hope that people will not perceive what emerges as political parties coming together and thinking of ways of getting public money for themselves. One of the critical aspects of this matter is that there is not public confidence in funding arrangements at the moment. If funding arrangements involve state funding, that must be done on a basis that the public regard as satisfactory. The points made by the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, are very important because funding that improves the role of political parties at a local level may well be much more acceptable than state funding for, for example, posters in a general election campaign.