Election that never was cost Labour £1m

Gordon Brown's decision this month not to call a general election has left the cash-strapped Labour party with a bill approaching £1m, according to the Guardian.

Party officials had sanctioned hundreds of thousands of pounds of expenditure on booking hoarding sites, literature and recruitment of staff, and were at an advanced stage in setting up a media centre to handle daily press conferences.

The cost of detailed polling in marginal seats by Opinion Leader Research - the company run by one of the prime minister's most trusted pollsters, Debbie Mattinson - is also understood to have run to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The Conservatives are thought to have spent substantially less in the week before the election was called off. It is understood their bill came to less than £200,000.

Meanwhile, Labour candidates in some marginal seats had already printed letters to go out to supporters. One, Martin Linton, who has a majority of 163 over the Conservatives in Battersea, south London, sent out letters to thousands of Labour members and supporters asking for their help.

The Guardian has been told by Labour and union sources that:
· Some three million letters - the first tranche of a series to key voters and supporters - were printed and had to be binned

· Technicians working on communication links at the Conservative party conference in Blackpool were called away by Labour on a contract to work on the election media centre in Victoria Street, London

· Furniture and equipment for the media centre was ordered, and a lorry delivering the equipment had to be turned away on the following Monday

· Hundreds of poster sites booked by Labour had to be pre-paid - the Tories also booked sites and mobile posters which are now being used to campaign for a European referendum

· Staff were recruited to work at union headquarters - notably the GMB and Unite - on campaigns in marginal seats


The cost of the election is certain to be raised when Labour's national executive meets next month. Some members thought Mr Brown should not have considered calling the election.
The party declined to respond to question from the Guardian.

Source: David Hencke, Westminster correspondent The Guardian (Monday October 22, 2007)

Labour government sucking the South dry

GORDON BROWN is facing a growing backlash over the way hard-working southerners fund northerners and Scots.

Workers in the South East believe the Scottish PM and his team don’t understand the pressures of life in and around Greater London.

Figures show well over half the economy of Scotland, the North West, North East, Wales and Northern Ireland is funded by the taxpayer.

Yet the economy in highly populated London and the South East – Britain’s engine room – gets just a third.

Critics in the South East believe they are becoming the cash cow for the rest of the country.

Currently 19 per cent of all UK tax receipts come from London and 37 per cent from London and the South East.

Only seven per cent of tax comes from Scotland.

And just TWO Cabinet ministers represent a southern seat.


The PM represents a Fife seat and his Chancellor Alistair Darling is MP for Edinburgh South West.

Defence supremo Des Browne represents Kilmarnock and International Aid secretary Douglas Alexander is the MP for Paisley, near Glasgow.

It reveals Northern Ireland’s budget per head of population is 70.5 per cent of the nation’s wealth. Wales gets 64.3 per cent, the North East 63, Wales 55.6 and Scotland 54 per cent.
And their figures show the gap is widening, not closing.

Ministers keep pumping cash into northern regions because they need the votes to win an election.


source: GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON Political Editor at The Sun

Another Labour M.P. forgets his roots

How sad it is when someone forgets their roots and principles. Dear old Michael Martin, former sheet metal worker, went into politics with the Peoples Party to right some wrongs.

Some years later he was promoted above his capability to the prestigious position of Commons Speaker where he has to maintain order in the Commons without favour to his old People Party mates.

Unfortunately, like many of his mates, he now appears to think that the taxes gleaned from the sweat of working people can be splashed around for personal reasons.

Working class Michael got upset when people started having a go at how he was doing his job so he spent £20,000 of taxpayers having some P.R. people issue statements saying that he was actually doing a good job..

It is not known what Michael ( Red Mick?) would have done if his sheet metal work had been critised back in his youth. Maybe it was a P.R. statement to the effect of Go away you beggers.