One of my friends has just shown me a letter from Ivor Caplin to his party members appealing for funds to fight the election.

Taking into account that sitting MPs earn the sort of salary most of us only dream about and they know they have to reapply for their jobs every four or five years, why can they not be expected to put £3,000 by each year to meet their own election expenses?

If they cannot forward plan for themselves, how can they forward plan for the nation?

-John Trenchard, Hove