Before the “Cash for Access/Dinner/Influence” scandal leads us once again down the road of state funding for political parties we might just ask is it really the only option? Various reviews and reports, most recently including Sir Christopher Kelly, have suggested the state picks up the cost of cleaning up politics. In return there would be a lowish £10,000 limit on donations and trade union members would have to opt in to their fees going to the Labour Party. This or something similar will form the basis of new talks on party funding. This might seem to you as if a burglar was telling the magistrate “If only you’d make up the shortfall in income involved in me being honest I would not have to go thieving”. But is there an option?