My cockles remain unwarmed. I think political parties, per se, are not a bad thing. They are just a thing. If you have politics, you'll get parties. And if you have people, you'll get politics.

Do not get your hopes up. The only function of pretending parties are dying is as a trope of bien pensant opinion to justify more progress in their regulation and nationalisation.

I'd be much more pleased to see the Electoral Commission dying. I'd be mildly comforted if it were proved membership of non-departmental public bodies (or quangos) shortens your life. Unfortunately I suspect the opposite is true, and that other people's membership of quangos is shortening my life.

From www.new-politics.com

The Electoral Commission is delighted to support People and Politics day and I hope that this unique event will inspire more young people to become involved in politics. This is great opportunity for young people to engage with some our most senior politicians and be part of the debate about the important issues in our democracy. - Sam Younger, Chairman of the Electoral Commission

I would have thought it better if the Electoral Commision concentrated on elections, which is somewhat different from support for state funding of political parties.

Best regards

Just to mention that at the national conference UKIP overwhelmingly passed the motion not to support state funding for political partes.

I'd prefer we didn't have an Electoral Commission at all. We had elections without it - among the fairest, best administerd, elections in the world - up until 2001. The mass corruption of postal votes in the last few years was not coincidental, but a consequence of the Electoral Commission's loosening the rules to 'increase participation'.

As for its connection with political parties, that is its raison d'étre. The Electoral Commission, despite its name, has as its principal role licensing and control of political participation. (To the point where it is distinctly uncertain at law whether pressure groups can take paid advertising at all, when some politicians have declared differing views on the point in question, if they are not themselves to fall under the control of the EC.) One of the main reasons for its creation was to hamstring the euroskeptic side in the referendum on adopting the euro that never took place; another was to give direct advantage to Labour and the state by creating barriers to voluntary individual and business funding in politics.

The trouble with the death of political parties is that people join single issue groupiings and become even more shrill. Then you have governments lurching hither and yon trying to please different constituencies rather than everyone.

This government is classic example of what happens when you have too much single issue and not enough concentration on the big picture. The giant mush that is British mainstream political party politics comes as a direct result of single issue politics.

Are these Republican negros also gay?

Ha! That just makes me think of possible new members for GNAA. (For those who haven't heard about GNAA: it's an organization of internet trolls.)

Arrgh. <cite> didn't work, and I posted to the wrong post. :-( That'll teach me to pay more attention to what I'm doing, I guess.

The Electoral Commission is delighted to support People and Politics day and I hope that this unique event will inspire more young people to become involved in politics. This is great opportunity for young people to engage with some our most senior politicians and be part of the debate about the important issues in our democracy.

If I were a parent, I would want my child to aspire to something more effective and productive than politics. I would be angry that after teaching my child for years a "live and let live" ethic, s/he would think that s/he had some kind of special knowledge and ability to run others' lives.

The second sentence sounds like Mark Foley instant messages. Keep your children away from the parliament of whores.