Re: Money, Money, Money
In the UK, such matters are regulated by the Electoral Commission
And so the art of gaining influence in the UK is much more subtle than the US practice of buying yourself a politician. Our telecoms regulator Ofcom is ineffectual, and appears to be captured by the companies it is supposed to regulate, but those companies haven't had to hand over millions of pounds to buy influence. They simply wine and dine a few politicians (which is a cheap form of getting a tiny bit of influence) but much more importantly they play the regulatory game to their advantage.
Ofcom take little account of consumer interests, but will heavily weigh the interests of companies, and so the outcome is almost always skewed towards the telecoms companies.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
