When news of the Tory budget cut was broken by Conservative Home it was spun as a prudent cost-cutting. Yet there is (as ever, with CCHQ) plenty of comic chaos behind the scenes. The basic problem was overspending in the boom years. Last year the cash was flowing in from bankers who could easily spare £50,000 and would pay even more to touch the hem of David Cameron. Things were going so well that, according to one version I’ve heard, David Cameron personally added £2 million to the budget, saying the party had to spend to get more cash. Other sources say it wasn’t Cameron, the machine just grew fat on its own. But either way, one thing’s sure: they should have put more money away for a rainy day; fixed the roof when the sun was shining. Those bankers don’t have any cash anymore.
As charity donations have plunged, so too have political donations – and this has hit the Tories disproportionately hard, because they get more individual cheques.
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