Peter Oborne in his brilliant book The Triumph of the Political Class anatomised the ruling elite. Cameron, Osborne, Miliband and Clegg are interchangeable. Political insiders since leaving Oxbridge, all they have done since is some media wonkery with little which now differentiates them politically apart from the colour of their rosettes. They are all in favour of living off the taxpayer.

Today Dave tells us he won’t be able to spend money on glossy ads and billboards unless he gets his hand on the taxpayer’s earnings.

Come off it Dave, try raising some money from your own supporters, don’t tax an unwilling public to pay for your party’s unwanted propaganda. It is bad for democracy to have state funding, it actually increases the distance between political parties and voters, it is not in any way necessary to have well funded parties to have a functioning democracy. Having to raise money from your supporters means you have to listen to them, getting the dole from the public purse makes politicians even less accountable than they are already.

Politicians don’t enjoy raising money from their supporters, but that is no reason to make ordinary workers forgo their justly earned income just to save them the trouble of working hard.