Twisted Logic

I suppose you've got to have a grudging respect for the bare facade cheek of Unite - when the union says that even if many fewer members agree to donate money to the Labour Party under Ed Miliband's planned reforms, that Unite's voting strength and special privileges should remain.

In other words, if and when the unions become more representative by affiliating to Labour only the number of members who make a conscious decision to 'opt in' and support the party financially - everyone should just pretend that nothing has changed.

So, if only 1 in 10 Unite members vote to give some of their hard earned cash to the People's Party, the union should carry on as normal - which is the same as saying that the views of the majority, the 90%, don't count according to this report from the BBC. 

Now this is mad, especially in the context of the big changes Ed Miliband promised to deliver last summer on the back of the Falkirk vote-rigging scandal, but I suppose it's not a great deal different to what happens at the moment - where periodic Political Fund Ballots are often supported by less than 10% of union members.

Yet a majority result vote of, say, 4 to 1 within the tiny turnout of 10% means that the 8% of people voting Yes - make an important  decision on behalf of the 92% of union  members who either vote No or are not sufficiently interested to cast their vote at all. 

All sounds a bit Orwellian, if you ask me, as if Britain's union bosses feel entitled to speak for people on party political issues even when they know full well that they have no right and no authority to represent the views of individual members - who are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves.        

Unite trade union urges Labour not to dilute its voting strength

Labour leader Ed Miliband urged trade unionists to back his reform ideas at their annual conference in September.

Britain's biggest trade union has told Ed Miliband it "cannot accept" any move to dilute its voting strength at the Labour Party's annual conference.

Unite said its "collective voice" must be preserved, even if fewer of its members sign up to Labour in future.

But it did not challenge the party's plan to end the automatic payment of fees from union members to the party.

Its comments came in a submission to the Collins review, which is examining the link between Labour and the unions.

A special Labour Party conference in the spring of 2014 is expected to debate the review's conclusions.

In September, Mr Miliband urged unions to have "the courage to change", as he advocated the removal of the automatic payment of fees by millions of their members to the Labour Party.

The Labour leader wants to give people the choice of "opting in" to become full Labour members when they join a Labour-supporting union.

He said this "historic" change would strengthen the party's chances at the 2015 general election through the recruitment of more motivated grassroots activists.

"Unite welcomes any measures which increase the involvement of individual trade unionists in the Labour Party," the union said.

"However, it cannot support any proposal that would lead to the collective voice of Unite being expressed solely through individual Unite members scattered across the constituency parties, nor can it accept any diminution of the trade union vote at either Regional or National Conferences (ie 50% at the latter)."

Unite is currently labour's largest donor, having given the party more than £750,000 pounds in the third quarter of 2013.

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said it was likely that Conservatives would question how radical the reforms are if unions continue to account for half the votes at the Labour conference.

It was previously not thought likely that the ability of union leaders to cast votes on the behalf of their members at the party's annual conference - the so-called "block vote" - would be addressed until after the 2015 general election.