AS LABOUR strives to remove the smear of sleaze and returns the £1million donation from Formula One racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone the whole issue of how political parties are funded comes alive.
The government promises a searching review of the system and suggests that the law will be changed to ensure all such handouts are disclosed.
Such openness, of course, is needed. But would that really squeeze sleaze out of politics?
Even if there was no secrecy surrounding such gifts, there would still remain the problem of whether they do so in expectation of favours in return.
That suspicion is the essence of sleaze and corruption in politics. How can the freedom to donate be separated from it?
It is a question that puts the prospect of state funding of parties back on the agenda.
It is an issue not without difficulties
But, elsewhere, state funding of parties does work. And in its review, the government would do well to examine how well or otherwise these systems operate abroad - and particularly in regard to how sleaze is kept at bay.
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