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Little by little, we are inching towards a sensible system of regulating political financing in this country. We will find the right balance at last when we fully grasp the fundamental principle on which any such system must be based. It is the same that underlies our system of government, and of law: the equality of every individual citizen.

An election is a conversation among the whole population. Its unit of currency is the individual. We vote as individuals, one ballot at a time; we run for Parliament as individual candidates; and so on. The parties are merely vehicles for like-minded individuals to participate, directing and amplifying their voices beyond what they could achieve in isolation. They have no moral standing beyond that of the individuals of which they are composed.

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For a long time we forgot all this. We set limits on party spending, yet set virtually no limits on contributions. We achieved a certain measure of fairness between the parties — but at the expense of fairness between the members of each. A party with a million members, each of which contributed $20, was under the same spending cap as a party with 20 members, each of whom contributed $1 million.