In November, Conservative peer Lord McAlpine announced his intention to seek libel damages from Twitter users over incorrect and defamatory insinuations linking him to child sex abuse.
The resulting scandals put off well-meaning donors who did not like the insinuations that stuck to anyone who gave money to politicians, leaving the parties too reliant on a small group of businessmen whose enthusiasm for politics was matched by their fondness for the tax codes of Monaco and Belize.