Friday, July 31, 2009

Labour donations fall 90% as big business turns its back on Iain Gray


Dear All

Just as the people are abandoning New Labour, business is waking up and seeing the writing on the wall.

Donations to the Scottish Labour Party have fallen by 90% in a single year.

As per Electoral Commission rules political parties must submit accounts and declare how much and where their donations come from. In the case of the Labour Party overall income was reduced from more than £1m to less than £400,000.

In Scotland for the last 50 years, Labour has ruled unopposed without real opposition as other parties struggled to get a foothold in civic government.

Times have now changed and I would say for the better.

As usual the Labour Party seeks to play down the figures as ‘being part of a cycle’ but the reality is much deeper than that, people have abandoned Labour because Labour has abandoned the people.

With the total collapse of the Labour English vote it is hardly surprising that Scotland is showing the same trend, north and south of the Scottish border, Labour’s policies are all about helping the super rich.

In real terms that matter to ordinary people, the gap between rich and poor continues to grow be it in health, education, jobs and social justice.

New Labour climbing into bed with big business to bankroll them but in doing so left out the fact people have rights.

Although the SNP have done well on donations they have had a peak income which topped £2.6m in 2007. In 2008 donations dipped to £1.76m in 2008.

As the SNP delivers competent Government and shows the people it really is a public service party I expect this will attract new members and donors who will be keen join the SNP as a progressive party going somewhere.

Down south in England the Conservative Party has been attracting big business donations as they stand a very good chance of destroying Labour in the forthcoming General Election.

This means that Government contracts will be up for grabs and I expect we will see as with Labour that those who have donated will do very well.

Finally Iain Gray and the Scottish Labour Party has more problems than debt; they can’t connect with the people anymore and in the long term, their problems will continue to mount under the rudderless leadership of Iain Gray.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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