Money Matters

As a member of Unite, I would be delighted to see my union block the appointment of Ed Miliband as Chancellor of the Exchequer because of his opposition to North Sea oil and gas. But I am not holding my breath for that to happen. In British politics, the trade union funding of the Labour Party is the only money for nothing, and sometimes worse than nothing. Businesses make investments, on which there are returns. Megarich individuals make purchases, which are delivered. We, though, are sentimental mugs, to the point of accepting the kind of abuse that ungrateful teenagers spewed at their parents.

Nicola Sturgeon may be facing a class action by the victims of Peter Murrell, which would require only the civil burden of proof. On Thursday, even before Andy Burnham had won Makerfield, Keir Starmer had raised £100,000 for his own Leadership campaign. Where will that money be going? And yesterday, Nigel Farage admitted that he had not spent any of Christopher Harborne’s five million pounds on “lifelong security”, nor apparently on anything else. But no one is given five million pounds for nothing. This is not going to go away.