Party Funding
pingupete | 25.08.2004 13:53
Astonishingly, UKIP were the recipients of £1.25 million worth of donations (or donations in kind) in the run up to the European elections.
They managed to elected 12 MEPs who now draw an annual salary of around £80,000 each and with expenses and other entitlements, their income is potentially £200,000 a year, of which some might get donated to UKIP. That is £12 million over the next 5 years, although how much actually work or communication will be done is debatable.
Some Random Questions:
Out of the £1.25 million donated to UKIP, £715,000 was donated by Paul Sykes in the form of billboards paid for by his company. Does this buy Paul Sykes influence?
Is the £600,000 donated by Paul Drayson to Labour in any way connected to his peerage and his company winning a lucrative government vaccine contract?
Do bears defecate in woods?
Is UK electoral politics accelerating towards the US model of campaign finance?
What can we do about it?
They managed to elected 12 MEPs who now draw an annual salary of around £80,000 each and with expenses and other entitlements, their income is potentially £200,000 a year, of which some might get donated to UKIP. That is £12 million over the next 5 years, although how much actually work or communication will be done is debatable.
Some Random Questions:
Out of the £1.25 million donated to UKIP, £715,000 was donated by Paul Sykes in the form of billboards paid for by his company. Does this buy Paul Sykes influence?
Is the £600,000 donated by Paul Drayson to Labour in any way connected to his peerage and his company winning a lucrative government vaccine contract?
Do bears defecate in woods?
Is UK electoral politics accelerating towards the US model of campaign finance?
What can we do about it?
pingupete
Comments
Hide the following comment
undemocratic means
25.08.2004 15:20
with membership of the labour party reducing and dependency of rich individuals increasing ,our so called democracy is being undermined.
tony blair will be happy to have a 2 party state as they do in the US. the more labour neglects the working class the more they rely on big businesses for funds.
the tories and ukip have always done this and are proud to get handouts from the rich, labour should be ashamed but tony is obviously not. however they continue to rely on the ever increasing reluctant trade union members generousity, this they can not take for granted.
trade union members are questioning their allaince with new labour and will be looking for an alternative parties to give their hard earned cash to.
i suspect that pigupete would like them to give their money to the greens, but the greens have no tradition of supporting workers rights and have little roots in the trade union movement.
as we enter a third term of labour neo liberalism , these debates will intensify.
red letter