BCF I don't know a lot about that. I know that generally speaking it's down to local associations to leaflet in the run up to elections and they fund this out of local association funds. So if a local party has fewer members who are donating you have a particular problem. This is quite separate to the spending limits, but if you have two elections close together this might be more prohibitive than spending limits themselves. Especially with depleted reserves from a snap election in 2017 and subsequent low moral.
In recent years, the Conservatives have taken a more centralised approach to leaflet production and distribution, in part because of a lack of man power but I suspect local associations are expected to stump up for their production still.
We already know that the Conservatives have an issue in that area, Labour's revenue is heavily in the red and the LDs are always skint.
The Euro elections are more difficult because they are not area based in the same way, so where the responsibility lies is less clear cut. All the messing about with we are having elections / we are not having elections means fundraising won't have been done a few months back in perhaps the way it should be and the parties are not as organised as they should as they've been busy with the locals. I can imagine there's a funding argument going on in some places.
From what I know of timetabling deadlines for the Royal mail party mailshots they are pretty damn early. My suspicion is the Conservative Party are going to be pushing their luck to get ANYTHING printed and distributed before the postal ballots arrive which will be a disaster for them. I believe there are two options for the royal mail mailshot - a named mailshot with your address from the electoral role or just a general one delivered to all households in a postcode without a name. The logistics of the first are harder, more time consuming and expensive than the latter. However a named correspondence is really thought to work better with voters considering voting for that party so are preferred where possible.
We know the Brexit Party has been on the ball with that. I don't think this is a luxury the Conservatives will have even if they have the money. The LDs might well struggle because the coffers are dry because they've just had a big push on the locals (a lot of LD associations won't be anywhere near the spending limit even if they have had locals, because that's beyond their means anyway! They do everything on a shoe string most if the time anyway). Labour I don't know quite where they might sit with that.
As it goes I'm yet to receive anything. My area is unlikely to be a priority for the Brexit Party (if we get something we will be last on the list). However we also didn't have locals here so in theory spending limits should be less of an issue. Yet nothing here.
My point being that I don't think it's the spending limit that's the problematic big and gives the Brexit Party the edge in terms of promotion. It's the money local associations have in the piggies bank right now and many areas are facing something of a cash flow issue which will potentially be leading to arguments with central offices over who is going to pay for a non constituency / Borough election. Plus the logistics of planning and being caught short with Brexit Hokey-Cokey and deadline extensions.
The LDs were fairly on the ball with candidates. The Brexit Party were very much on the ball. Labour were somewhat slower and I think the Conservatives just about scrapped the deadline. And that's far more indicative of how the parties are handling the elections.
The centralised nature of the Brexit Party also helps them enormously.
I would not be surprised at a repeat of the 2017 elections where the Tories were shockingly late with candidates, caught off guard with planning and couldn't find a printer who could do it quick enough as there wasn't enough paper in the country to met the deadlines they needed to hit. Only worst. An absolute car crash of planning.
Labour has had their big row over the EU ref which I bet delayed things for them too.
Ultimately the LDs manage to campaign nationally on a budget, only spending up to their limits on target seats. You could target your mailshots to postcodes which are most likely to be targets and spend little in areas which aren't going to be good targets and this would help with spending limits AND lack of funds.
This also favours the Brexit Party and the LDs / Change because you'd target either heavy remain areas or heavy leave areas first. The Tories and Labour in trying to court both are unable to do that.
Everything points to a major advantage to the Brexit Party in terms of campaigning and ability to campaign. The electoral commission spending limit isn't the factor that I'd put near the top of the list for problems for that reason.
Hope that makes sense.