Counting the teabags

I find the latest political funding row very difficult to understand. How anyone who is in modern political life (either as a candidate, a large donor or an activist) could claim not to have known the rules is quite beyond me.

I was a candidate in the last General Election in the UK, and we were scrupulous about donations – even to the point of having seperate campaign teabags and mugs for those working on the campaign so as not to accept an inadvertant donation. At one point I had personal tea, church tea and lib-dem tea, each in different cupboards. Mind you, I had a fantastic campaign manager who was more organized than me, sorting them out.