The new year got off to a cracking start with political blogs falling over themselves to release analysis and snippets of news on donations to political parties. Stories about Lib-Dem and Tory alleged non-compliance seem to have dropped out of the headlines, but the press seems less keen to drop the bone about Labour problems, with Peter Hain having his difficulties and facing investigation by the Electoral Commission and by Parliament.
Fellow blogger Carl Gardner, author of the Head of Legal blog, had this to say: “The Peter Hain case is a big test for the legal and regulatory regime on political donations: if PPERA and the Electoral Commission are to earn public confidence, some time, some politician has to be made an example of, and prosecuted for an offence. In Peter Hain’s case, that’d be under paragraph 12(2) of Schedule 7, unless he can show he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to ensure donations were reported, in accordance with paragraph 12(3).”
