"Whiter Than White" - How the Labour Party
Washes Money from the Taxpayer Via the Unions
No.2 in a series
Tory Candidate Arrested Over Hate Campaign - Watford Observer
PM Under Fire for Not Answering Sith Questions - FT
Labour Desperate to Reschedule £16m Debts - Indy
Darling: "We're Doomed" - Times
Sean Tevis for State Rep., the Internet Candidate via Tom Steinberg
Scrounging Tory MP Complains -
Brown' s Undeclared "Donation in Kind" - COP Blog
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22 comments:
Smug and pompous liar,'Baldy' Blair
Betrayed our country and lost his hair.
Corrupt,dishonest and full of shit-
Who will rid us of this odious git?
Well done Guido for covering this. This is just shameless corruption.
I've not been following this bit of the latest scandal, perhaps preferring to stick my fingers in my ears and sing hoping not to notice whether my union UNISON is involved, because if it is I shall simply have to resign in disgust I think.
There can't be much happening in the world at the moment.
Guido discovers "Trade Unions fund Labour party shock horror!!!" . About as newsworthy as Lord Ladidah funds Tory party etc etc.
For those who have forgotten their history the unions founded the Labour party, and continue ( much to the discomfort of No 10 ) to be the largest component in the party and supply a considerable amount of the income for the Labour party.
So unless your Union is not affiliated to the Labour Party ( either because it is not considered left wing enough for the likes of the RMT or the because some unions such as the NUT have a "non political stance" ) then a laump of Unions funds will go to the party as any cursory inspection of the annual accounts will reveal. Seeing as these are public documents ( and allways have been I believe ) none of this is either news or a surprise.
However the money that goes to the labour party comes out of the unions political fund. This fund is made up from a small amount of each members subscription ( members can opt out of paying this bit if they so choose ) any money received by a union in grants from the DTI for whatever purpose would not be paid into the political fund so would not find their way into Labour Party funds.
Given that this is very common knowledge one must assume that Guido wants a job on the Daily Mail where the truth must never stand in the way of a Labour Party bashing story.
WTF! £10 million of Taxpayers money to the Unions!
I just want to know what 'modernisation' the unions required. Imean, are we talking £10 million worht of flatscreen monitors or what?
Party funding is murky but at least the Trades Unions were transparent with the political levy and it does represent the only broad-based support any political party has. Blair was going to create a mass-membership party - in his dreams. He is the master of saying what people want to hear, the attribute of the con-man to his mark.
Adolf Hitler used to address businessmen at The Park Hotel in Duesseldorf and they gratefully fuelled the private bank accounts of Heinrich Himmler with RM 20.000/month - people like Otto Stinnes, Friedrich Flick, et al.................Hitler used to get a levy off every postage stamp which bore his image; acquired printworks and newspapers.
Today it is the SPD in Germany which owns newspapers, printers, vast real estate assets -
No doubt with State funding both major parties will build up a splendid property portfolio..................if North Yorkshire Police could salt away £26 million without the Police Authority being aware, it is most probably that political parties will render themselves completely outside democratic control.
For the present I see the Trades Unions as the only hindrance to Blair selling this government to Lakshmi Mittal or Roman Abramovitch
JC,
You are a clown. The unions funding Labour is fine if that is what their members want. The taxpayers subsidising the unions is a a new development started this year. The £10m bung "for modernisation" is equivalent to the support the unions give Labour.
Its a subsidy to the Labour party from the taxpayer with the money washed through the unions.
It is entirely different from the political levy issue.
JC - so if the Labour Party didn't get it's £11m in donation the DTI would still be happy handing out £10m for 'modernisation'?
Jock COats
Yup Unison is part of this whole corrupt and filthy game of fleecing the public accounts for the Labour Party.
This government has become adept at ensuring money is transferred from the state to the Labour party via various brown envelope scams and nobody is really making any effort to stop them.
JC - the political levy has to be opted out of not opted in to, so most funding is a result of inertia. Why you think this is a moral and decent thing escapes me, but to pretend that it is OK for the Unions to give the party money with one hand and collect it back from the taxpayer with the other is quite shocking and indicates a typical socialist disregard for what happens to other people's money. This is corruption pure and simple and the worst of it is they will get away with it.
While I agree that the Union Modernisation Fund is a sweetener from the government to get the unions onside, I have to say that your article is wilfully misleading.
The UMF is supposed to be £5-10 million in total, spread over several years. This is far less than the £11 million the unions gave Labour in one year. Unions that have applied for and won grants (the full list is here) are not allowed to use the funds for day-to-day operations or the like.
Still, great blog. Keep up the good work!
The dti should just be abolished.
The dti should just be abolished.
Along with many other quangos.
JC,
You illustrate a basic lack of the understanding of finance that amazes.
Let us say that Union X recieves 10 million from its membership. That 10 huge needs to be divvied up between the various things the Union has to do:
A% to the union pension fund
B% to paying staff salaries
C% to paying rent on their office space
D% membership of TUC
E% to funding of annual conference
F% to Labour Party
Now they decide that they need to modernise (buy computers, get the GenSec a new car, go on a fact finding trip to Cuba, whatever). This costs money; money they don't have. The income is split between line items A to F and it would go against the decisions of the membership to change that. Nor can they squeeze the members for more dosh. Being hard pressed proles exploited by the nasty capitalists, the members can't afford an increase in the subs. Especially when there have been grassroots rumblings about the fatcats living on cream at HQ. "There's elections coming up at the next conference," breathes a worried Brother.
The Brothers look through the budget again; they really want to go to Cuba. Sadly, items A to E are fixed and cannot be changed, but maybe something can be done about F.
The problem is the members want Union X to pay the Labour Party. The Labour party desperately needs the money, so how to get the new computers (or car for the GenSec or jollies to Cuba)? Then a light bulb goes on in a Brother's head. It's one of those eureka moments.
"Eh up!" he says "Our lads are in power. What about the billions collected each year by the Inland Revenue?" Other light bulbs go "ping" over other brother's heads. They now know where the money is going to come from. All they need to do is work out how.
Of course they can't just stick their grubby little fingers into the till, that would be too obvious even for socialists. So they come up with the rather wizard wheeze Guido has outlined above.
The Union pays its dues to Labour so the members are happy, Labour gets its cheque so Tony is happy and thanks to a "modernisation grant" the GenSec gets his new electronic paperweight, car and the funds to go on a fact finding trip of a Caribean workers' paradise with his chums.
The only people who might be unhappy are the poor sodding taxpayers. But, when under NuLabour, have they ever mattered?
Now do you understand?
RM
So the truth emerges.
Of the approximate £3 million given out in grants for 30 or so for projects most have been given to organisations who do not nor are ever likely to give money to the Labour Party ( including such well known lefty outfits as the Britsh Dental Association, the Royal College of Midwives and the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists ). It is also quite clear that the money is for specific purposes and cannot be redirected off for the general use of the organisation concerned let alone be somehow diverted into the political fund. Unlike private bodies there are strict rules as to how Unions can spend their money which are enforced not least by the Union's own members ( not all of whom are labour party supporters ).
So there is no "laundering" operation and the article and the nice graphic are straight from the Berlusconi school of journalism ie complete bollocks.
There is clearly a valid discussion to be had on whether on not the projects are suitable receipients of public funds but that has nothing to do with the funding of political parties.
This blog is the best spot to keep up to date with the sometimes funny sometimes stupid and even very occasionally criminal world of Westminster but fiction like this only detracts.
JC,
Calm down dear it is just a graphic.
But the facts are £10m is going to the unions for starters and that will release money elsewhere for expenditure on err, fact finding missions to Cuba and donations to Labour.
As for those Commie Dentists, they are a threat to free enterprise and the tooth fairies. Mark my words...
Things of gone downhill since the Peterloo Massacre, eh Guido?
Back then the oiks knew their place and if they didn't they felt the edge of the sword. How dare they think they have a right to organise and have a political voice!
By the way, I hop you are now going to demand the government ceases all subsidies to any part of civil society. Democracy is such a bore.
The sooner we get to abolish the minimum wage the better.
Toodle pip! I have to go and shoot my grouse beaters now.
The people actually handing out the UMF funds include four Union people, and all four of their Unions (Connect, CWU, Amicus and USDAW) received grants in the first round of the scheme (although quite how much the DTI won't tell us yet).
Adrian Askew, the GS of Connect and their representive on the UMF board is also on the Better Regulation Commission, who are the driving force behind the Parliament-abolishing Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.
Well, JC, there is a possible addendum to my scenario:
Let's assume that the members have agreed to budget for electronic paperweights at HQ and even the branch offices, let's call it line G of the abovementioned budget. That still leaves the unapproved lines H and I (new brumbrums and jollies to the caribean).
If the Brothers can screw the cash from the government for line G, the money budgeted for that is now going spare and the Brothers wouldn't be Brothers if they couldn't sweet talk the proles into accepting that after all their hard work getting taxpayer loot they didn't deserve snazzy motors and the odd junket.
RM
The sooner we get to abolish the minimum wage the better.
Certainly cut out the need to import Illegals and Wetbacks to undercut it wouldn't it ? Maybe cockle-pickers wouldn't need to pop over from China !
This corruption is now being investigated by the Met. This government's sleaze is surely reaching epidemic levels? Can they secure any funding at all without returning the money from the taxpayer's purse?
I posted about this on my blog here:
http://sinclairsmusings.blogspot.com/2006/04/union-modernisation-fund.html
Err... hello ....? am a newbie here so please be nice.
I read about the £10 million going to the unions in our local paper here in Jersey in an "off the wall column" ..... makes a change that we actually get something really worth reading...
Last week there was a thingy on TV ref that lispy chef desperately trying to get help for schools\kids\mums&dads with school dinners. After finally getting a chat with B-liar (surrounded in nice comfy chairs and media attention) they walked away with a "promised" £1 million. They were obviously ecstatic to get this dosh. Imagine what good £10 million could do.... it is so so sickening to see monies get wasted like this.
"Flymo"
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