Loadsamoney
The only interesting point to emerge from the Independent's interview with Dave Prentis - boss of Unison - is that the union has given more than £800,000 of its members' money to the Labour party - since Ed Miliband became leader.
Now although this enormous donation will have been approved by some dreary union committee in London - I suspect it will still come as a bit of a shock - to ordinary Unison members.
Who asked Unison members in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lanarkshire or Fife - whether they wanted to hand over such a giant sum of money - to a political party that most of them don't even support?
No one, of course - and that's the problem.
The bosses of the big, affiliated trade unions - GMB, Unite and Unison - fancy themselves as armchair politicians and use members' money by the barrowload - to meddle in the internal affairs of the Labour party.
Which wouldn't be so bad - if individual union members were involved or had some proper say in the process - but they're not.
Last year the 'big three' union leaders decided to throw their collective weight behind Ed Miliband in Labour's leadership contest - but only a tiny percentage of ordnary union members actually voted - around 6%, if I remember correctly.
Yet the very small number of union members that did vote - still cast one third of the total votes under Labour's electoral college system - distorting the final result as some people's votes were worth much more than others.
And this 'Alice in Wonderland' approach to trade union democracy - is now bedevilling and undermining the authority of the new Labour leader - Ed Miliband.
Now although this enormous donation will have been approved by some dreary union committee in London - I suspect it will still come as a bit of a shock - to ordinary Unison members.
Who asked Unison members in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lanarkshire or Fife - whether they wanted to hand over such a giant sum of money - to a political party that most of them don't even support?
No one, of course - and that's the problem.
The bosses of the big, affiliated trade unions - GMB, Unite and Unison - fancy themselves as armchair politicians and use members' money by the barrowload - to meddle in the internal affairs of the Labour party.
Which wouldn't be so bad - if individual union members were involved or had some proper say in the process - but they're not.
Last year the 'big three' union leaders decided to throw their collective weight behind Ed Miliband in Labour's leadership contest - but only a tiny percentage of ordnary union members actually voted - around 6%, if I remember correctly.
Yet the very small number of union members that did vote - still cast one third of the total votes under Labour's electoral college system - distorting the final result as some people's votes were worth much more than others.
And this 'Alice in Wonderland' approach to trade union democracy - is now bedevilling and undermining the authority of the new Labour leader - Ed Miliband.
