STRENGTHENING LINKS WITH TRADE UNION MEMBERS

POLITICAL funding hit the headlines recently following allegations about the process for selecting a candidate in the previously obscure Scottish Falkirk constituency.

 David Cameron has used the Falkirk issue to denounce the trade union movement’s link to the Labour Party.  Meanwhile, Conservative MPs have been foaming at mouth in their collective condemnation.  But Labour was founded by the trade union movement so there is an obvious historic connection.  It’s a relationship the Conservatives loathe and refuse to acknowledge the positive impact trades unions have delivered for ordinary working people.

 Many of the things we take for granted today such as paid holidays, maternity rights and equal pay etc were fought for by trade unions and delivered by Labour governments.  These advances for working people are what make up our ‘civilised society’ – albeit one that the Tories seem determined to sweep away.

 Ed Miliband recently announced that Labour intends to strengthen its links with trade union members by putting them at the heart of our party, just as they were at the outset.  We do not want automatic affiliation anymore; no individual should fund the Labour Party unless they choose to do so.

 But what about funding for the Conservative Party?  Well every year vast sums are injected into Tory coffers by millionaire benefactors who coincidentally get richer whenever we have a Conservative government.  Take hedge funds.  The Chancellor, George Osborne, gave them a £145m tax cut in the budget.  Interestingly the Conservatives received £25m in funding from hedge funds.  Remarkable coincidence?  I’ll let you decide.

 So what is to be done?  One answer would be to cap political party donations.  Labour has proposed that the limit should be £5,000, but Mr Cameron has rejected this figure.  He wants the cap to be £50,000.  Maybe that is because the Tories have 250 millionaires prepared to make an annual donation of £50,000.  Compare that to the six pence per week paid by trade union members affiliated to the Labour Party.

 We are in different worlds.  That’s why Ed Miliband’s proposed reforms of Labour’s relationship with the trade unions are brave.  He is putting good politics first and is focused on engaging with real people rather than relying on the death-throes of old politics.

 We have a chance to rehabilitate our democracy by taking the big money out of politics.  The ball is now firmly in Mr Cameron’s court.  He needs to decide which side he is on.   Will he stand with the British people or the tiny minority of multimillionaires who currently bankroll the modern Conservative Party? 

 The prize is the restoration of trust in our political institutions.  Time will tell whether Mr Cameron will make the right call.