It's Not Just The Tories
For readers of a certain age - just think back to the 'good' old days of Robert Maxwell for Labour and Jeffrey Archer for the Tories - from the 1970s and 80s.
More recently the Tories have been under fire for accepting massive sums of money from Lord Ashcroft - but as the following article from the Times points out - it's not just the Tories who work the system in a cynical way.
The trade unions have been pouring millions of pounds into Labour coffers for years - despite the fact that only a minority of members actually vote Labour at election time.
Here's a summary of what Rachel Sylvester had to say the other day in the Times - the full article can be read on-line at: http://www.times-online.co.uk/
"It’s not just the Tories."
"Follow the money, Deep Throat said to Bob Woodward. But in fact what matters in politics is power. Money is only important if it brings influence. The real issue is who controls candidates, policies and ultimately results.
Nowhere is this more true than in the marginal seats that will determine who wins the election.
Much has been made of Lord Ashcroft’s role in the Tory marginals campaign. What has been underplayed, however, is the increasingly effective Labour operation being run in key seats by Unite, the trade union whose political director is Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor.
Like Lord Ashcroft, Unite has been generous financially, contributing £3.6 million to Labour last year, nearly a quarter of the total donations the party received. Since March 2007 it has given more than £11 million. Two years ago Labour was able to get its accounts signed off and avert bankruptcy only by getting a written guarantee from Unite that it would continue to provide significant funding. It has been there for the party in its darkest days, just as Lord Ashcroft was for the Tories.
But like the peer’s, the union’s most important role now is organisational rather than financial. Unite has set up a “virtual phone bank” to canvass people in marginal seats, urging them to vote Labour. Every Thursday thousands of members volunteer to contact other members as part of a campaign known as Unite4Labour. They log in to a computer database and are given names, phone numbers and a script to read asking how the person intends to vote.
Between now and polling day the campaign will intensify, as the union tries to increase turnout among potential Labour supporters using information gathered during two years of direct mail shots and e-mails. It’s a strategy of “peer to peer marketing” borrowed from Barack Obama in the United States.
“You can spend billions on glossy leaflets and posters but what really matters in a modern election is convincing people,” Mr Whelan says. “If you ring up from a political party they won’t listen, but if you ring up from a union, and they’re a member of the union, they’re more likely to take notice of what you say.”
Ministers detect Mr Whelan’s influence over policy, such as the decision to shelve the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail, which his union opposed. Insiders believe he has returned the favour to Mr Brown by keeping Unite at the negotiating table with British Airways in an attempt to avert strike action in the run-up to the election.
Meanwhile, just as Lord Ashcroft did, the union has fought a highly successful campaign to get its people selected as candidates in safe seats. Harriet Harman’s husband, Jack Dromey, Unite’s deputy general secretary, is standing for Labour in Birmingham Erdington and last week John Cryer, a political officer for the union, was chosen in Leyton and Wanstead.
Both Lord Ashcroft and Mr Whelan are playing hardball. But politics is more than a game. If the voters in marginal seats realise who is trying to pull the strings they might be even less inclined to vote for either man’s party."
