Some of the criticism of political expenditure has been directed as much against the goods and services purchased as against the amounts involved .sx Many leading members of the Labour Party dislike , distrust , and sometimes fail to understand , the world of public relations .sx In the words of Mr. Gaitskell , there are many in the party who 'feel insulted and humiliated that their desires and wants are being dictated to them regardless of how real they are , or how genuine are the advertisers' claims .sx They feel the whole thing is somehow false .sx ' Alice Bacon , chairman of the NEC's publicity and political education sub-committee , has denounced the Conservative Party's public relations efforts for having 'introduced something which is alien to our British democracy' .sx The Conservatives are charged with selling political ideas as if they were detergents .sx Distaste and disgust are strong emotions , but negative ones .sx The Labour Party has been singularly lacking in suggestions about what might be done to prevent the Conservatives from 'subverting' or 'Americanizing' the British electorate by public relations techniques .sx A small minority of Labour Party members would probably support a drastic curtailment of advertising by government action , and accept the implications of this for the press as well as for politics .sx Regulation of advertising which did not control it virtually outright would not seriously affect political expenditure .sx If a law could be drafted to prevent politically relevant advertising , one could also be drafted to prevent the expenditure in the first place .sx Parties , if not all their associates , could be prohibited from purchasing advertising space in newspapers and on the hoardings .sx If instead the Conservatives put more money into colour comics like 'Form' , the level of debate would hardly have been raised .sx Much spending to which objections are made- for instance , the Colin Hurry poll , Aims of Industry press releases , the Economic League's factory gate speakers- does not take the form of purchasing space ; only +445,000 of the +1,435,000 credited to business groups in the Nuffield study was spent on buying advertising space .sx Efforts to control the content rather than the volume of advertising are foredoomed to failure .sx It would be virtually impossible to discriminate in a statute between political advertising which does or does not lower the tone of debate .sx A promise to increase pensions appears as altruism to some ; to others it seems rank bribery .sx An Advertising Council might be created along the lines of the Press Council , to scrutinize advertising and censure offenders ; given the model suggested , little could be expected from such a body .sx It would be as difficult for a quasi-judicial tribunal to pass upon the content of political advertisements , rejecting those that were 'unsuitable' , as for the Speaker of the House of Commons to do similarly in parliamentary debates .sx It might not be particularly difficult to attack the advertiser's practice of using market research methods to study the wants of the electorate .sx A law could prohibit pollsters from asking questions on political topics .sx But this would not affect the substantive problem , which arises from the fear that some politicians frame or revise policies simply to win more votes , without regard to the national welfare .sx =3 .sx All the proposed alterations discussed so far have been restrictive ones , intended to remedy deficiencies in the Representation of the People Act by reducing the amount of money spent on electioneering in the long run .sx But the Act might also be altered in such a way as to increase the scope for political expenditure .sx The foregoing analysis indicates that restrictive amendments to the present Act are not likely to remedy the alleged evils .sx The American experience of fifty years of attempted regulation would confirm this judgment .sx V. O. Key reports :sx Legislation purports to require publicity of campaign finance , to limit the amounts spent , to prohibit certain types of contributions to campaigns , and to limit the size of contributions .sx In general , the laws do not in fact limit expenditures , substantially affect the size of contributions , or assure full publicity .sx If means could be found to level up the resources of Labour and the Liberals , much of the bitterness might be removed from present discussion of election laws , and the practical consequences of major shortcomings of those laws would be greatly reduced .sx One remedy lies within the hands of the Labour and Liberal parties- it is to collect higher dues from members , a far easier task than greatly expanding present membership .sx In the words of Morgan Phillips , ~'Labour Party income is still geared to a different and far less expensive political era .sx ' As long as five-sixths of the party's members contribute three farthings a month ( 9d .sx a year ) to Transport House , Labour leaders can hardly plead that their relative financial weakness is solely the fault of the Conservatives .sx If dues for trade union affiliated members were raised to 1s .sx a year , Transport House would have an additional +70,000 to spend annually .sx If trade union members paid the party 2s .sx a year , as Phillips has suggested , the income of Transport House would be doubled .sx Since the Labour Party proclaims a desire to narrow income differentials , it might consider the membership scheme of the German Social Democratic Party ; it is a sliding scale , with contributions graded according to income .sx Nearly 600,000 German socialists gave the party more than +1 apiece on average ( +720,000 ) in 1957 ; dues for those in the highest income bracket were set at +50 a year .sx The Liberal Party is appealing for mass-membership contributions .sx The appeal leaflet , This is Your Party , estimates minimum annual needs at +172,000 .sx Another method of increasing party revenue would be to have the state make statutory contributions to the parties .sx At present the law penalizes the candidates who secure less than one-eighth of the vote at parliamentary elections .sx The law could equally give cash bonuses to the candidates who save their deposits .sx Grants are made to candidates in some foreign countries .sx The actual amount given might be determined in one of several ways .sx It could be equal to the sum of money spent in each constituency , or equal to the legally permitted maxima .sx Alternatively , it might be a lump sum of +500 or +1,000 .sx The grant could be paid after each election or annually .sx ( A guarantee of campaign expenses would not only save parties this sum , but would also free them from the need to keep a sizeable cash reserve against the possibility of having to fight two elections in quick succession .sx ) A grant paid on the basis of sums spent by candidates in campaigning in 1959 would have brought the Conservatives +475,000 , Labour +435,000 , and the Liberals approximately +90,000 .sx It would be prudent to make such grants to candidates , in order to avoid the difficulty of defining a party , and the possibility of placing the Treasury in a position of having to arbitrate between two factions both claiming one grant .sx The sums of money involved would be small by Exchequer standards , but considerable in political terms ; the poorest party , the Liberals , would be aided most in proportion , the richest one , relatively least .sx The Labour Party's dependence upon trade unions for finance could thereby be appreciably reduced .sx Another way of remedying deficiencies , which would also lead to greater expenditure , would be to abolish the present restrictions on spending by candidates .sx The Economist suggested this in a post-election editorial of 10 October 1959 , as a means of preventing the law from being brought into disrepute .sx Liberals , who depend more upon personal appeal and constituency efforts than do others , might gain most from such a step .sx =4 .sx Most advocates of stricter accounting of political expenditure assume that money buys votes ; some charge that it buys votes in sufficient quantities to win elections .sx This assertion is truest when it is most platitudinous :sx a party cannot operate without money .sx To go further , and say that a party such as the Liberals gains few votes because it has little money is to mistake cause and effect .sx It would be more nearly true to say that a party with relatively few voters , such as the Liberals , has difficulty in raising money .sx As the rise of the Labour Party shows , the necessary minimum is not great , nor is it impossible to secure if the party has strong support in the electorate .sx Many British discussions of political expenditure seem to assume a simple input-output model of electioneering :sx X thousand pounds will produce X or X/2 or X/4 or 2X or 4X votes .sx Y inches of advertising space will produce Y/2 or 2Y units of political influence .sx ( How much of a reduction factor is needed for the 100,000,000 or so leaflets distributed by the Economic League between elections has never been specified .sx ) People unaccustomed to dealing with large sums of money might think it incredible that hundreds of thousands of pounds might be spent to no real effect .sx Socialists are further handicapped in viewing the problem if they believe that capitalists are not only wicked but also devilishly clever .sx The determinants of voting behaviour and election results are so infinitely complex that we can rarely separate out any single factor and assign to it a specific amount of influence .sx Since the introduction of the secret ballot , it has been impossible to establish a straightforward cause and effect relationship between expenditure and voting .sx We can only examine what we know about elections and about how money is spent , then make judgments based upon selective empirical data and logical analysis .sx Elections are determined by three interrelated factors- the material and social environment , individual values , and party activities .sx The influence of an individual party upon a given election result is a limited one ; therefore , the value of party spending is likewise limited .sx There is a ceiling ( and quite possibly a diminishing margin of utility ) for political expenditure .sx The Gallup Poll's graph of the party standings in its monthly polls since 1945 suggests that the single most important influence upon voting behaviour is the economic state of the nation .sx This is little affected by the few hundred thousand pounds that the parties spend .sx Long-term environmental changes , important in setting the limits within which parties may manoeuvre , are also outside the control of party treasurers .sx This explains why the richest party does not always win elections in Britain or America .sx The successes of the Labour Party at the polls , particularly in the 1920's , are good evidence of this .sx Money cannot purchase a large political following , although it can purchase attention .sx Lloyd George's fund could underwrite constituency expenses , but it could not ensure the delivery of safe seats .sx In America the Democratic Party achieved five successive victories from 1932 against wealthier opponents .sx Only the most simple-minded materialist would reject Key's statement :sx 'Money is not the sole currency of politics ; Roosevelt held counters in the game that outweighed money .sx ' There is , of course , a distinction between buying votes and buying political favours .sx Some Labour criticism of political spending by business firms has fastened upon the allegation that these firms are buying preferential treatment from Conservative governments , as well as seeking to influence all voters to oppose nationalization .sx It has similarly been charged that Labour's failure to press nationalization of insurance was due to its financial links with the Co-operatives , and that its industrial policy , or the absence thereof , is dictated by the unions' power over Labour's purse .sx To note financial links between interested groups and parties is not to prove that government favours are for sale ; it only shows that there are some questions of public policy on which a party government cannot be disinterested .sx Only if the Exchequer were made the sole source of party funds , which no one suggests , could parties be made absolutely independent financially of such pressure groups .sx Whether , as in the case of the Labour Party , the economic interest creates the political organization , or whether the party attracts the interests , is beside the point .sx Much of the money that the parties raise is spent on party headquarters and constituency organization ; the value of both of these is often overrated by those who are closest to them .sx