Cash for Cameron scandal

greg66_tri_v2.0

Frank the tank wrote:

Being as you have an option to opt out of political donations or even being a member of a trade union at all; what is it that the right wingers on this forum find so abhorent about groups of ordinary working people funding a political party that (should) have their interests at heart, whilst it's alright for the rich to support a party that looks after their interests?

<and then some chippiness followed>

I don't have anything abhorrent about it. But I think Maxwell draws a false parallel between (a) ordinary working people funding the Labour party and (b) big business funding the Tories.

The "big business" has its equivalent in the Union itself. The ordinary working person has their equivalent in the shareholder. Just as you can opt out of the political aspect of your Union sub, no one forces you to buy shares in a company that donates to the Tories.

Both the Union leaders and the boards of major companies donate in the hope that their donations will see their interests met by the donee party. Their interests are by no means necessarily the same as those of their members/shareholders.

Frank the tank

Greg66 wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

Being as you have an option to opt out of political donations or even being a member of a trade union at all; what is it that the right wingers on this forum find so abhorent about groups of ordinary working people funding a political party that (should) have their interests at heart, whilst it's alright for the rich to support a party that looks after their interests?

<and then some chippiness followed>

I don't have anything abhorrent about it. But I think Maxwell draws a false parallel between (a) ordinary working people funding the Labour party and (b) big business funding the Tories.

The "big business" has its equivalent in the Union itself. The ordinary working person has their equivalent in the shareholder. Just as you can opt out of the political aspect of your Union sub, no one forces you to buy shares in a company that donates to the Tories.

Both the Union leaders and the boards of major companies donate in the hope that their donations will see their interests met by the donee party. Their interests are by no means necessarily the same as those of their members/shareholders.

No chip on any of my shoulders fella. I happen to believe the wealthy look after themselves hence 5% income tax cut most glaring recent example.
Verylonglegs, I have my own political ideas some that are a bit too radical. I'm sure we would all like to run the country as a dictator if we were honest; but we all know that'll never happen (Phew! )

Jez mon

verylonglegs wrote:

Lot of truth in there. Don't know how old you are Jez but I'm wondering if it's a generational thing, to me the political system in this country is still stuck 30yrs back with an us/them or red/blue mentality and to me and my peers it leaves us feeling rather reluctant to get engaged with politics as we aren't represented. I have a mixture of views that prevent me siding with right or left and as an example I have friends who work for web/IT companies, small businesses, specialist engineering firms, self-employed plumbers/electricians...what use would a union be to them?! Equally they don't care for overt tory principles so they are left with not much to choose from.

Unions possibly have some leverage in the public sector as it is not exposed to the global market but for most private companies now if you strike then there is plenty of scope for out-sourcing that work overseas to someone who won't. (I've yet to meet an advocate of unions to suggest a way around this). Although a works council as utilised by the dutch location of the company I work for seems to be a happy middle ground. It's worth remembering a powerful union can be just as destructive and dis-agreeable as the bosses it takes on.

Ideally for me I'd like either the Labour or Conservative party to implode, I don't care which, over it's key problem which is Labour no longer actually representing it's voters or Conservatives over European policy, and then hopefully something a little different, modern and progressive will emerge. Until then I've had enough of it quite honestly.

I struggle to see Labour imploding, as they are virtually guaranteed a fair percentage of votes, from a certain sector of society who blame Maggie Thatcher for everything and this feeling is just as strong in many of the young people from that background, as it is in those who were around in the Thatcher years. Whilst some of this group might have been tempted to look at the lib dems, that party has now been tainted irreparably by taking part in the coalition.

That leaves the Conservatives and whilst they do have a core vote, I don't think it is quite the same size as that of Labour, not does it have quite the same mind numbing fervour.

I generally hover more towards the right of centre and having gown up under Labour, I don't think they did a great job. Not predicting the collapse of the world economy is forgiveable but two costly and unnecessary wars are not.

For what its worth, here's a breakdown of party funding.