Union Cash And The Labour Party

Labour has made a big deal about the effect that Lord Ashcroft's cash has had on the Conservatives.  What they won't acknowledge in public is that they have numerous non-dom sources of cash themselves.  The Conservatives today published a paper about another source of cash funding their Labour campaign, that of cash from the Unite Union. The Conservatives are taking the fight to the Unions and to Charlie Whelan in particular.

The Paper does a good job in spelling out the financial and political influence the Union has over the Labour Party and even spells out where the two organisations have effective merged into one operation.  The underlying effect is that the Unite Union has a hand in running the country, and none of us voted for that!  They have taken advantage of the poor finances of the Labour Party and engineered themselves into positions of influence on public policy.  It is common knowledge that soon after Gordon Brown took over the Labour Party its finances (which he had managed) were in a dire state.  What is a little less known is that Unite saved the Labour Party from bankruptcy, and that Unite has spent £11m of its members money since Gordon Brown took over installing it's preferred candidates and buying influence with the Governing Party. 

If Gordon Brown is prepared to hand over (or hand back..) control of the Labour Party after he crippled them financially can we really trust his with our futures after he has crippled the country financially?

If you are interested, go read the report, it is a nice easy read yet is actually rather comprehensive given the depth of individual facts, quotes and donations listed. 


Total donations to Labour CLPs. Since Q3 2005, Unite has donated £460,561.81 to 148 Labour CLPs.
MP seats bankrolled by Unite (90 CLPs):

Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside)
Sandra Osborne (Ayr Carrick and Cumnock)
Margaret Hodge MBE (Barking)
Eric Illsley (Barnsley Central)
John Mann (Bassetlaw)
Patrick Hall (Bedford)
Gisela Stuart (Birmingham Edgbaston)
Richard Burden (Birmingham Northfield)
Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton)
David Crausby (Bolton North East)
Terry Rooney (Bradford East)
Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South)
Madeleine Moon (Bridgend)
Dawn Primarolo (Bristol South)
Nick Palmer (Broxtowe)
Ivan Lewis (Bury South)
Wayne David (Caerphilly)
Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley)
Phil Hope (Corby)
Bob Ainsworth (Coventry North East)
Jim Cunningham (Coventry South)
Jon Cruddas (Dagenham and Rainham)
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish)
Margaret Beckett (Derby South)
Ed Miliband (Doncaster North)
Jim Knight (Dorset South)
Gwyn Prosser (Dover)
Ian Austin (Dudley North)
Andy Love (Edmonton)
Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Clive Efford (Eltham)
Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood)
Vernon Coaker (Gedling)
Paul Clark (Gillingham and Rainham)
Ann McKechin (Glasgow North)
William Bain (Glasgow North East)
John Robertson (Glasgow North West)
Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West)
Parmjit Dhanda (Gloucester)
Anthony Wright (Great Yarmouth)
Linda Riordan (Halifax)
Bill Rammell (Harlow)
Tony McNulty (Harrow East)
Gareth Thomas (Harrow West)
Jim Dobbin (Heywood and Middleton)
Alan Johnson (Hull West and Hessle)
David Cairns (Inverclyde)
Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury)
Dr Roger Berry (Kingswood)
Gordon Brown (Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath)
George Howarth (Knowsley)
Jimmy Hood (Lanark and Hamilton East)
Hilary Benn (Leeds Central)
George Mudie (Leeds East)
Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East)
Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and Falkirk East)
Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central)
Dr Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes South)
Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood)
Dai Havard (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Paul Farrelly (Newcastle under Lyme)
Yvette Cooper (Normanton Pontefract and Castleford)
Sally Keeble (Northampton North)
Charles Clarke (Norwich South)
John Heppell (Nottingham East)
Douglas Alexander (Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Linda Gilroy (Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Chris Bryant (Rhondda)
Kevin Barron (Rother Valley)
Phil Wilson (Sedgefield)
Dan Norris (Somerset North East)
Angela Smith (South Basildon and East Thurrock)
John Denham (Southampton Itchen)
Alan Whitehead (Southampton Test)
Dave Watts (St Helens North)
Shaun Woodward (St Helens South and Whiston)
Anne McGuire (Stirling)
Robert Flello (Stoke on Trent South)
Siân C. James (Swansea East)
Anne Snelgrove (Swindon South)
David Wright (Telford)
Angela Eagle (Wallasey)
John Spellar (Warley)
John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne)
Tom Watson (West Bromwich East)
Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West)
Tony Cunningham (Workington)
Ian Lucas (Wrexham)
Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Albert Owen (Ynys Mon)

PPC seats bankrolled by Unite (58 CLPs):

Ronald Hughes (Aberconwy)
New candidate tba (Ashfield)**
Alan Strickland (Berwick upon Tweed)
Ian Saunders (Beverley and Holderness)
Jack Dromey (Birmingham Erdington)
New candidate tba (Birmingham Selly Oak)**
New candidate tba (Blackpool North and Cleveleys)**
Nancy Platts (Brighton Pavillion)
Julie Cooper (Burnley)
Maryam Khan (Bury North)
Stephenie Booth (Calder Valley)
Jude Robinson (Camborne and Redruth)
Jenny Rathbone (Cardiff Central)
Ivan Henderson (Clacton)
Debbie Abrahams (Colne Valley)
Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch
West)
Chris Williamson (Derby North)
Michael Edwards (Derbyshire South)
New candidate tba (Dunbartonshire West)**
Pat Glass (Durham North West)
Grahame Morris (Easington)
Leo Barraghclough (Eastleigh)
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East)
New candidate tba (Edinburgh South)**
Ian Boulton (Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Alison Moore (Finchley and Golders Green)
Ian Mearns (Gateshead)
Daniel Marten (Haltemprice and Howden)
Phillippa Roberts (Hereford and South Herefordshire)
Karen Jennings (Hornsey and Wood Green)
Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South)
Mike Robb (Inverness Nairn Badenoch and Strathspey)
Mark Chiverton (Isle of Wight)
Clive Grunshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Rachel Reeves (Leeds West)
Liz Kendall (Leicester West)
Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield)
New candidate tba (Middlesbrough South and Cleveland
East)**
Andrew Pakes (Milton Keynes North)
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
John Cook (Norwich North)
Jayne Innes (Nuneaton)
Anneliese Dodds (Reading East)
Naz Sarkar (Reading West)
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale)
New candidate tba (Rutherglen and Hamilton West)**
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central)
Valerie Shawcross AM CBE (Southwark North and
Bermondsey)
New candidate tba (Stalybridge and Hyde)**
Chuka Umunna (Streatham)
Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central)
Geraint Davies (Swansea West)
Victor Agarwal (Swindon North)
Carl Morris (Thurrock)
Stella Creasy (Walthamstow)
New candidate tba (Weaver Vale)**
Lisa Nandy (Wigan)
Andrew Judge (Wimbledon)

**Denotes where a new candidate has not yet been
announced.

Note:
In this [the source] document, Labour MP CLPs are defined as those
where the current Labour MP is standing for re-election
this year.
PPC CLPs are referred to as those where the current
Labour MP is not standing for re-election or where there
is no Labour incumbent.

Who Is Backing Gordon Brown?

Gordon Brown Quotes:

"at root our economy is better placed to weather the global storm than it was in
the seventies, the eighties and the nineties". – To North West of England
Business Leaders (see here.)

"It's a financial global recession everybody knows and started out of America,
we are having to deal with the fall out. We are better placed in Britain than we
have been in the past and are better placed that many other countries" – BBC
Interview (See here)

So, do people share your views Gordon?.....

What about Ed Balls? Well, let’s look at who he is first. He worked for the Financial Times as an economic leader writer (1990 – 1994), before going on to work for Gordon Brown in 1994 in the then Shadow Cabinet. After Labour won the 1997 election he worked for the then Chancellor (again, one Gordon Brown) in a position called “Chief Economic Advisor” where he allegedly earned the title “The most powerful unelected man in Britain”.

It would be fair to say then, that Ed Balls is intimate with Gordon Brown, familiar with the internal workings of the treasury department, the Government and of the national economic position.

Last night, Ed Ball told a Labour conference that these were "seismic events that are going to change the political landscape". He also said the current economic situation is "more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s" (See here.)

Oh dear. That doesn’t sound very supportive of Mr Brown or this Labour Governments official position.

Ok, well let’s look at someone else then… how about Nikolas Sarkozy. Well again let’s look at who he is. He is the democratically elected President of France (means he won an election of the whole country, Gordon may not be familiar with this concept).

Any way, what did Mr Sarkozy have to say on Gordon Browns Economic competence? Surely as a European leader, he will look at what Gordon brown was quick to do, and follow his leadership.

"The British chose a recovery plan by boosting consumer spending, notably by
cutting VAT by two per cent. It is plain to see that it has brought absolutely
no progress. "

Doesn’t sound very supportive, maybe we should look at what else he said…

"The reason is simple: because it's in people's heads. If the consumer no
longer consumes, he won't change just because we add or subtract one VAT point,
it's because he's scared for his future, he's scared for his job and says to
himself: 'I must save, because bad times are coming'.

"In France, we chose investment because when we put France into debt by
taking money to invest, in return we have assets, infrastructure. When you put
your country into debt to pay for operating costs, you have nothing in return
for your debt and you ruin the country.

"If the English did that it's because they don't have any industry
left. Gordon Brown cannot do what I am doing with carmakers [giving them up to 6
billion euros]... in construction and other industries, because they haven't got
any left."

Oh dear. Well let’s look at the IMF then. They have effective control on the world’s supply of money, they must recognise that “Gordon Brown has not only saved the world….” Ooops, he didn’t mean to say that did he.

Anyway, the IMF know what they are talking about, they must agree that the UK is well positioned economically. They have a report here. Oh, I forgot, they placed the UK at the very bottom in their outlook of developed nations, and are predicting that the UK economy will shrink by 2.8% in 2009.

Ok, maybe these are too specific. How about House owners?

No, wait, house prices have fallen an average of £22,000 per house hold in the last year or so.
What about the Unions? They love Labour Prime Ministers.

Hmm, forgot, they though when Gordon Brown said “British Jobs for British Workers” he was going to do that. He didn’t thell them that the EU won’t let him.

Labour voters?

Well, admittedly they might be hard to find now, as only 28% of the electorate is considering voting for Labour.

Polly? Getting mixed signals from Pol. Best not disturb her today; she is getting a bit of a kicking today from her readers.

My Blogs readers… No, wait, this is getting embarrassing… I almost forgot, but 92% of them want Brown to resign.

What about Gordon Browns Cabinet, they must support him and his claims on the economy…

Let’s see, The Foreign Secretary? No, that’s David Miliband, he was going to run a campaign against Gordon Brown Last year. Nobody, not even Gordon Brown thinks David Miliband trusts Grodon Brown.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary? Well she is supportive, but then again she is making massive amounts of money from the position Gordon put her in, she would have to back him, he is probably keeping a public enquiry from her door.

Jack Straw? haven’t heard from him in a while… hmmm, wonder where the Justice Secretary is?

Ed Balls? No, done that one already.

Labour MP’s. They will of course support their leader. They have to, it’s their job to, and they wouldn’t want to make dear Gordon cry again. Come to think of it, a lot of them will be out of a job soon, they are probably less happy..

I t seems I may am struggling to find a credible example of somebody who will back Gordon Brown’s economic policies, and actually for him to remain as Prime Minister. Is there anybody left that does?

Oh wait of course there is. I forgot, there is the BBC and the EU.