TESSA Jowell is still, just about, in office and now another financial scandal is threatening to engulf Labour.

It is said that you can buy an honour by donating to the party. More than a million appears to guarantee a knighthood or a peerage.

These scandals show that David Cameron has not only reinvigorated the Conservative Party but also that party's natural supporters within the media - even though the Conservatives are just as guilty as Labour of accepting non-accountable loans and rewarding wealthy friends with gongs.

These funding scandals undoubtedly damage the party at the centre of them. Following on from the Jowell affair, Labour looks increasingly seedy.

To prevent future scandals, perhaps now we need to change the system of funding our political parties.

It is right that individuals should be able to give money, either as membership fees or well-intentioned gifts, to the party they support. But they shouldn't be able to give so much that the party becomes beholden to them. So there should be a cap on how much an individual donor can give.

To replace the lost revenue, political parties would require some state-funding. This would be controversial, but if we are to have clean politics we are going to have to pay for it - just like we have to pay for clean water or a clean environment.

The Power Inquiry, which reported last month about ways to improve our political system before it kills itself, had two interesting suggestions.

Firstly, donations should be capped to £10,000.

Secondly, voters would be given the opportunity to tick boxes on their ballot papers to allot £3 of state-funding to their preferred party.

These suggestions would take some of the heat out of the donation scandals which regularly debase our politics.

The second suggestion might even encourage political parties to listen more closely to the people if it is the people that hold their financial fate in their hands.