The party fund (From The Argus)
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The party fund
4:21pm Tuesday 16th March 2010 in
Your investigation into party funding (The Argus, March 13) shows there is far from a level playing field in Brighton and Hove’s politics.
The Conservatives have a massive advantage, with £125,000 coming from wealthy donors, Ashcroft-backed com-panies, shadowy “dining clubs” and millionaire candidates who stand to benefit from David Cameron’s tax cuts for the wealthy.
Second are the Greens, who funnel almost all of their £92,000 into one seat, massively outspending their opponents and showing their claims to be the underdog in terms of funding to be untrue.
Finally Labour, with less than half as much funding as the Tories, has received £56,000 over five years, made up almost entirely from small individual donations and subcriptions from trades union and party members.
Come the election, remember that the glossy Tory leaflets you receive are paid for by multi-million pound deals, secretive and undemocratic “clubs” and untaxed non-dom donors who will make even more should David Cameron get to Number 10.
Cllr Warren Morgan
Labour and Co-operative, Freshfield Street, Brighton
Comments(8)
Christophe Hawtree
says...
5:18pm Tue 16 Mar 10
oldmarket
says...
6:56pm Tue 16 Mar 10
You could always get a bung from the Unite union, which has already given the Labour party nationally more than £11 million. Mind you, there's a suspicion that part of that will make its way to the three marginal seats in B+H and none of it will appear in local Labour party accounts.
We didn't hear you complaining when the Tories and Greens were cash starved a few years back and your lot were rolling in it. Funny that.
bug eye
says...
7:01pm Tue 16 Mar 10
salty_pete
says...
8:24am Wed 17 Mar 10
Alison Smith
says...
4:32pm Wed 17 Mar 10
yorkie44
says...
5:27pm Wed 17 Mar 10
Tony Davenport
says...
12:33pm Thu 18 Mar 10
Just because Labour isn't doing very well as far as party funds go (though let's face it, they've had their fair share of dodgy donations in the past) they seem to think that all this is unfair. It didn't seem to bother them when they had the most money.
But then this kind of hypocrisy is not unusual for the likes of Councillor Morgan. In this city Labour pushed to bring in the cabinet system in council, removing the previous committee system. Why? Because they evidently thought it would mean that they could marginalise all the other parties. Now that it has backfired since they lost control of the council three years ago they argue that it is undemocratic!
Communal bins are another example - Labour (including Councillor Morgan) forced these onto the streets with no consultation with the residents. With Labour out of power and the Tories doing the same thing, what happens? Suddenly Labour leaflets fly around about how outrageous it all is, including one with a picture of the diminutive Ms. Liz Telcs, a Labour candidate for Goldsmid ward, standing next to one of the overbearing monsters. Oh yes ... Ms. Liz Telcs ... also known as Mrs. Warren Morgan - yes, that same man who brought them in.
Cough .... hypocrisy ... cough.
Tony Davenport
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Fight Back says...
5:08pm Tue 16 Mar 10
> Illegal wars
> Spending on the NHS with no equivilent improvement
> A flawed ID Card scheme
> Renewing Trident
> Hugely increasing overseas aid when we should be tightening our belts
This money they've wasted comes from the raids on private pension schemes, over taxing the population and selling the nations gold reserves at rock bottom prices.
So it's probably better that Labour only has a small amount of money to spend. You'd only waste it otherwise.