The Electoral Commission wants to close a loophole that allows donations to political parties without declaring their name – by doing it under a corporate guise. The new proposals would make organisations such as the Midlands Industrial Council list their donors and the amounts given by them.

To be honest, the proposals seems pretty fair. If people want to donate to political parties, they should do so under their own name, and certainly not someone elses.

However, this proposal should also apply to trade unions, who receive funds and pass them on in pretty much the same way. Except these are not purely voluntary, as trade unions are not advertising the fact that members can opt out of paying a political levy, and are made up of a much larger number of smaller amounts. But apart from that, what is the difference? Both do exactly the same thing, in exactly the same way.

Personally, I think the best way to reform party funding would be to allow anyone on the electoral roll to donate as much as they like, but their name has to be recorded publically however much they donate – rather than allowing anyone who donates less than £5,000 to hide their names. If we are to have a truly transparent system, this is the only way to do it.