12. Letter to the Commissioner from Mr
Anthony Steen
I think it is important to nail certain matters before
our meeting tomorrow at 10.30 am. The term "split funding"
was never mentioned in any dealings I had with anybody until the
complaint made by Mr Clayton. It is not a question of the Department
not saying that split funding had been withdrawn; it never mentioned
it. All they did say is that if they concluded part of a publication
had any party political activity, they would reduce the claim
accordingly.
Furthermore, your definition of split funding into
two different senses is an entirely new definition that I have
not heard of before. Nobody has ever defined it like that until
your letter of 22 November. When you say that split funding is
still possible, I can assure you that the Department never explained
that either. The Officer I spoke with never mentioned split funding,
nor did he divide it into two alternative possibilities. Consequently
he never mentioned that the former system was no longer allowed.
It is a travesty of the facts to say otherwise.
On the question of whether the words in the newspaper
were campaigning or political activity, to decide that the entire
article has to be read as a whole. You cannot cherry pick words
or phrases and say there you are, an "offence" has been
committed. I would ask that the whole newspaper be available to
individual members of the Committee. They will come to their own
conclusions, taking the article as a whole, as to whether my comment
could be construed as campaigning or political activity, or whether
it was political comment.
As this article was specifically about Torbay Council
and their failure to return £100 to individual council taxpayers
in the 2004-2005 financial year, I was simply reporting facts.
If that is accepted, the sole remaining point is whether the phrase
the Lib Dems need their heads examined constitutes party political
activity or campaigning. If the Committee says it is not, the
whole question of split funding will not be an issue.
22 November 2004
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