1 Comment September 9th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Even the Trade Unions can see where the political tide is going - towards the Conservatives - that is why they are discussing with their trade union envoy.
However, there appeara to be some who either (a) are complete idiots, or (b) really want the Conservatives to win. Why? Because they are threatening a new Winter of Discontent.
Trade Unionists don’t appear to learn from history, do they? Either that or even they have defected from Brown.
1 Comment June 27th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Certainly that will be the case if this happens:
Unions are to demand new rights to strike as the price for keeping the cash-strapped Labour Party afloat.
Repealing the ban on secondary industrial action is among a swath of left-wing policies that unions want to see in the Labour manifesto. The pressure on Gordon Brown comes as he is relying on the unions to help to avert Labour’s cash crisis, when they are in increasingly militant mood…
As unions begin to flex their muscles on the ground, they are working to maximise their leverage over the Prime Minister at a time when the Government is politically vulnerable and the party is financially parlous. (The Times)
If Labour give in to the Unions, they will have sold this country down the river.
Add a comment October 29th, 2007 by ThunderDragon
The Labour Party, and thus the British government itself, is currently massively in debt to the trade unions. Not just purely financially either.
The unions, in addition to paying £10 million into Labour’s general election war chest, pumped carefully targeted resources into specific marginal seats for the first time.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the unions paid for six million direct mail shots, organised a postal vote recruitment campaign, provided teams of drivers, set up a nationwide website and sent almost 200 campaign officials to the marginal seats.
The logistical support, which was worth millions of pounds, helped galvanise trade unionists to go out and vote in May 2005. The unions boasted that the strategy made such an impact it “helped Labour win a third term”. (The Telegraph)
This is, of course, massively hypocritical considering Labour’s attacks on Lord Ashcroft for targeting money into key Tory marginals. But it also shows that Labour rely on the trade unions to a frighteningly high degree, both financially and organisationally.
That the trade unions can say that it is them “wot won it” for Labour in 2005 gives them a very strong hold over Labour during their third - and hopefully last - term, considering that Labour’s position in the polls will just decline in the long run and as such Trade Union support may well be essential for them. That a British government is so indebted to such a small interest group is wrong, and scary, in so many ways.
