The mainstream political parties are finding it increasingly difficult to finance themselves from membership fees and donations, and — to give Ed Miliband his due — he is trying to stop Labour once again becoming over-dependent on trade union money. Meanwhile the "Smeargate" shenanigans suggests that government money should no longer be paid to political parties and certainly weakens the case for extra state funding in future. Will traditional political activity in the UK therefore disappear, as the parties find that they cannot afford a meaningful campaign and research infrastructure? 

An emerging counter-argument is provided by the UK Independence Party. In local elections this year UKIP has been taking about a quarter of the vote, not that different from the two leading parties and well above the Liberal Democrats. At the national level UKIP's income was for many years under £500,000 a year, less than the bonus of many individual City traders, and it has never received much from the British state. One interpretation might be that, when people can see a big cause (like the independence of their nation), they are prepared to devote time and effort to promoting that cause, and they do so regardless of their short-term self-interest. Public choice theorists would struggle to explain the rise of UKIP by "the use of economic tools" within the context of a so-called "science" of politics.