Party funding - what has Labour got in mind?

Well there we have it. Her Majesty confirmed that Her Government will propose regulation of party finance and expenditure. Commentators confirmed they have not got any spin guidance about how Labour proposes to go about it. Manifesto election supremo Ed Miliband in the BBC studio in the Houses of Parliament for the State Opening confirmed the government wants to find a a way to cap election spending not just in the year before an election. Rather than start with Hayden Phillips as recommended in today's Guardian editorial here, I hope the government goes back to the Electoral Commission report in 2004 - at least that was conceived by the statutory body responsible for regulating political parties, unlike HP's efforts conceived in No 10 to mask the stench of cash for honours. A key recommendation concerned encouraging political party membership - and leading indictor of the health of our democracy (IMHO).  General Election spending the EC proposed should be cut to £15 million. Earlier in the Queen's Speech she said her government proposed a draft bill on citizenship - it would only take a smidgeon of vision for joined up thinking to link the two and, hey presto, we could have a charter of members' rights inside the Labour Party as proposed here.