Political Parties and Elections Bill

I understand that point, but in this Bill we will probably not be engaged in fine-tuning it, so perhaps it is for another occasion. We disagree on it, but we can return to it privately. The important point is that among the limited number of justifications given by the right hon. Member for Horsham and by one or two of his Conservative colleagues was the suggestion that by reintroducing the trigger we are being unfair to candidates. Electoral law and electoral practice are not about candidates; they are about the integrity of the electoral system and being fair to the electorate. That touches on the nature of where our political system is going. A short debate took place earlier about the arms race. Hayden Phillips's report ““Strengthening Democracy: Fair and Sustainable Funding of Political Parties”” states:"““PPERA sought to control the level of spending, but it has proved inadequate to the challenge. Parties may be complying with the letter of the law, but not the spirit.””" There is no doubt that a political arms race takes place in every electoral cycle, and it matters not whether the absolute volumes increase election by election—the constant trend has been upwards.