Thursday, August 26, 2010

Tory donors can access David Cameron for £50,000 a year donation to the leader’s Group, other parties could benefit from the professional approach















Dear All

Would you pay £50,000 to meet David Cameron?

I wouldn’t even if I had the money.

Cameron prior to the election was personally raising cash for the Conservative Party by offering to attend dinners with businessmen who pay a £50,000-a-year donation to join a club called the Leader’s Group.

This gave people private access to him.

All political parties use this type of fundraising in some form to raise money to campaign.

For the Tories, they use a professional targeted approach as does the Labour Party.

People paying £50,000 a year aren’t doing this for the benefit of their health, this is business.

Cameron and senior Cabinet ministers parade themselves to wealthy donors at functions ranging from drinks after the weekly Question Time in the Commons, to campaign launches.

The Tories criticised Blair and Labour Ministers for doing the same, pure hypocrisy on their part and politics.

Cameron and co aren’t doing anything illegal what seems to upset other politicians is that they haven’t clicked that politics has to operate like a business.

Some people don’t get this simple fact, they think if they take the amateur route then ‘everything will come right on the day’.

How do you persuade people if you come across as a bunch of clowns?

Quite simply you can’t and will always lose.

One thing in the political world is the lack of confidentially, recently an MSP in a political branch said that he couldn’t support a dress code that activists should be presented in a more professional image.

We are not talking Savile row suits, just shirt, tie and dress trousers when doing certain activities and events.

He mounted a successful anti professional campaign which will be the only success of note during his Holyrood election campaign.

What this shows is that although political parties would agree the message is important, some don’t recognise the way it is delivered is equally important on the ground.

The branch organiser stepped down because he wasn’t prepared to argue against such stupidity, if the MSP can’t recognise the importance of presentation, then he should look at the jobs vacant section to plan ahead.

Tories project prior to and in government, professionalism; you can do business with a professional.

However now that Cameron is Prime Minister, he should stop this activity although he isn’t doing any illegal; it isn’t moral because the questions that you can buy your way to him and his influence will always remain.

He won’t however because we are talking serious money.

This shows that other parties could learn from how the Tories and to some extent how New Labour operate.

People flock to the English Tories because they are seen as accessible and professional, from the ground up to the top of the tree.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

No comments:

Post a Comment