To ensure that political parties could campaign on equal terms it would require the tax payer to fund the political parties directly. This would almost certainly result in the taxes going up to provide directly for party staff. We have recently seen in the expenses scandal that faith in MP's is low, to give them more influence in terms of public spending would be a very dangerous move.

Most importantly though it is easy to forget this: roughly only a quarter of the electorate of the United Kingdom (and sometimes less) vote for the winning party while under half actually vote. That means that if parties were to be funded we would be forcing over half the electorate to pay for something they do not even believe in.

Right now, if I want to donate money to a party I am completely free to do just that. Its right that I should be able to do that, if I want to do anything else then I am just as free to do that also, and that is because we live in a liberal democracy, not just a democracy. Parties should have the right to freedom in the way they operate and the way they raise funds, and people should have the freedom to donate if they want to also. A system where liberty is reduced and some people forced to contribute reduces liberty and so should be the reverse of a mature liberal democracies goals.