The best democracy money can buy | Prem Sikka | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .
It is often claimed that Britain has the best democracy that money can buy. Evidently, the monied interests have already bought it. TheConservative and Labour parties are funded by corporations and wealthy individuals. Groups providing funds to political parties expect a return on their investment and the payoff is ideological shaping of politics, help in the legislative process, privileged access to the state machinery and help in securing contracts.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
If you check the Electoral Commission site you’ll see that unions are in fact the major donors to the Labour Party.
Does their money not purchase influence and privilege in quite the same way or something?
The unions seem to be pretty rubbish at getting value for money out of their subs to NuLabour! It’s rather like how voters in the North East get naff all for their support. When you are taken for granted……
Tim, since the unions represent workers (hm, you’d think the LABOUR Party would do this!), their participation in the democratic process is essential. Workers are the active part of the economy. In any case the Tories saw to it that contribution to the political levy had to be individually elected, unlike company political donations.
James from Durham, yes I agree. It has always puzzled me, when walking through the East End of Glasgow or run-down slums in northern England, why their people consistently elect Labour politicians. What has Labour ever done for the people who live in these hellholes, almost totally dependent on benefits? Of course, it’s all tribal and a lot of people there just vote Labour because their parents and grandparents did.
“since the unions represent workers”
Well, no. Unions represent that fraction of the workers that belong to unions. Usually at the expense of that fraction of the workers that do not belong to unions.
Don’t get me wrong, freedom of association is as much of a necessary and vital part of a free country as is freedom of speech.
But I don’t think that those who claim to represent what is it, 10%? 20%? of the labour force should have privileged access to the democratic process.
The election is, if I’ve understood this properly, only for that part of donations that come from the union dues. Money from other sources (like the Union Modernisation Fund, ie taxpayers money) is not subject to it. At least I think that’s the case.