(Sorry I'm late responding; I was offline yesterday.)

Wow. I had no idea. Here, you don't have to pay, but if you join a party they drive you to drink with begging phone calls and mailers asking for donations.

So do people who can't afford the fees or who choose not to affiliate with a party have limited voting rights? I gather they can vote on things like the Brexit referendum, but not on the selection of a party leader or a party candidate.

JFK was pretty awful too, in spite of his clean-cut good boy image. With today's media, he wouldn't have stood a chance.