Who funds the Tory Party election campaign?

Poster by David Rosenberg

Who funds the Tory Party election campaign?

Yesterday we showed how the Tory Party communications director, Andy Coulson was editor of the News of The World during a period in which that paper used people with criminal convictions to phone tap the voice mail of leading political figures including John Prescott, then deputy Prime Minister. members of the royal family and George Galloway MP amongst many others and asked a number of important questions including why was the police investigation dropped in to all this?

Today we show how the Tory Party finance their pre election work in the key marginal constituencies and ask where is this money coming from and has UK taxes been paid on it?

From the Independent:

"Ashcroft's election war-chest targets marginals by Nigel Morris, Andrew Grice and Stephen Morris

Investigation by The Independent reveals Tory donor's strategy to clinch election win

The Tories have spent £6m over two years in the parliamentary seats that hold the key to general election victory, an investigation by The Independent has found. A drive for votes masterminded, and largely funded, by the Conservative deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, has seen party headquarters pump more than £1.1m into the coffers of constituency parties in Britain's most marginal seats.

Tory activists raised another £5m locally to build up huge cash reserves in seats they need to win with a small swing. The Conservatives, whose spring conference opens in Brighton today, need to gain 117 seats to put David Cameron in Downing Street with a majority of one.

An analysis of the accounts of Tory associations in those constituencies by The Independent shows they received a massive influx of cash from Conservative headquarters in 2007 and 2008. More than 50 were handed a total of £1,145,484 over the two years. Local donations, bequests and fundraising accounted for a further £4,983,460, resulting in a joint income of £6,128,944 in those associations.

Candidates from other parties have repeatedly complained they have been massively outspent in campaigning in marginal seats in recent years.

The Independent survey found that in Harlow, where Labour is defending a wafer-thin majority of 230, the Conservatives received £121,800 (of which £29,084 came from party headquarters) over the two years. That is equivalent to £1,050 for every voter the Tories need to change his or her mind. " More ........

So where is all this money coming from?

From Wikipedia: (start of quote from Wikipedia)

"Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, KCMG, (born 4 March 1946 in Chichester), is an international businessman, philanthropist and politician. He holds dual British and Belizean nationality, and is a Belonger of the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Made a life peer in 2000, he is a Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK he was placed 37th with an estimated fortune of £1,100 million.^[1]

Ashcroft has close business and other connections with the Commonwealth country of Belize. In his 2005 biography, he admitted that it is a country where his interests have been "exempt from certain taxes for 30 years."^[7] In 2009, the Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow told its parliament:^[8]

“

Ashcroft is an extremely powerful man. His net worth may well be equal to Belize's entire GDP. He is nobody to cross.

”

In 1981, Belize had gained independence from the UK. Seeing the opportunity to build an off-shore operations base and control the countries financial service, in 1984 Ashcroft formed Belize Holdings (BHI), which became the vehicle for a parallel acquisition spree during the 1980s, beyond the scope of Hawley .........

Ashcroft owns a Dassault Falcon 7X, registration VP-BLZ, via his Bermudan registered company, Flying Lion.^[14] He owns two 150 feet (46 m) yachts, both registered in Belize........

In December 2005, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.^[19]

During the "Cash for Peerages" controversy, on 31 March 2006 Ashcroft was named by the Conservative Party as having loaned it £3.6m.

On 12 October 2007 he was accused by Labour MPs of being allowed to heavily fund the local Conservative organisations in marginal seats of his choosing. The Electoral Commission is investigating and changes to the rules are predicted.

Significant donations made to the Conservative Party by Bearwood Corporate Services, a company controlled by Ashcroft, have also come under scrutiny. The trading status of the company, and thus the validity of donations totalling £3m, is unclear and is the subject of an investigation by the Electoral Commission begun in October 2008. Both Labour MPs and the Prime Minister have called for the process to be concluded in time for the next general election, due by mid-2010. Liberal Democrat Baron Oakeshott stated: "Democracy is in danger if Lord Ashcroft has been pouring millions into Conservative campaigns through an offshore pipeline from a Caribbean tax haven."^[18][20][21]

Belize

Ashcroft allegedly gave the right-wing People's United Party in Belize $1m when it was in opposition.^[2] During its period on power, it introduced laws that are claimed by opponents and media commentators to be financially advantageous to Ashcroft." (end of quote from Wikipedia).

So its no surprise is it that the Tory Party want to reduce Corporation Tax in the first year of any government they form!

Questions that need to be asked:

1. How much has Lord Ashcroft donated to the Tory Party election funds?

2. How much have the Tories already spent in marginal seats?

3. Has UK tax been paid on all the money donated to the Tory Party election funds?

4. Do we really want a government run by people like this?

5. When will the electoral commission complete its investigation (begun in October 2008)?

Sunday Update: £6million on marginals - Mirror.co.uk

Sunday Update from the Guardian:

"The Tories also face fresh pressure over whether their billionaire donor and ­deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, breached funding rules. The Liberal Democrats have written to the chairwoman of the Electoral Commission, Jenny Watson, to request that the commission concludes an inquiry into some of his donations before an election is called. The inquiry, which began 18 months ago, is into donations from a company owned by Ashcroft, Bearwood Corporate Services. The key question is whether Bearwood was operating as a fully functioning business at the time the donations were made.

The Lib Dem home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, warns in his letter to Watson that the legality of the general election result could be called into question if £5m in donations to the Tory party via Bearwood – including £80,000 in sponsorship revealed this week – are ruled illegal.

Ashcroft will come under pressure on two fronts this week to reveal details of his tax status. Some 78 Labour and Lib Dem MPs are backing an amendment by Labour's Gordon Prentice to the constitutional reform and governance bill, which reaches report stage next week. It would force any peer, whose elevation to the Lords was conditional, to reveal whether they have met the terms of the agreement. Ashcroft undertook to become UK resident – including paying tax – when he received his peerage in 2000, but refuses to say whether he has fulfilled that promise.

Prentice said: "Ashcroft has repeatedly refused to clarify his tax status. He has stonewalled for a decade while bankrolling the Conservatives, giving two fingers to the electorate. His millions are allowing the Conservatives to buy seats at the next election."

Spokesmen for both the Electoral Commission and Ashcroft refused to comment on the ongoing investigation."

Link: Wikipedia
Link: The Independent

George Galloway's phone tapped by News Of The World

George Galloway's phone tapped by News Of The World.

In an article in the Guardian today George Galloway, Respect MP states that he has "been approached by Scotland Yard and told that, in material which they seized from Mulcaire, they found evidence to suggest that his voicemail had been intercepted. In March 2006, Galloway was the target of an apparent attempt to entrap him into making anti-semitic remarks". This was at the time when Andy Coulson was editor of the News of The World.

Now Andy Coulson for those that don't know is currently communications director for the Conservatives. The Guardian also alleged that under Coolson's editorship they "employed a freelance private investigator even though he had been accused of corrupting police officers and had just been released from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail".

So it's no surprise is it for the "so called" bullying stories about Gordon Brown to come out of an office located a few doors away from the Tory party HQ, the location of a "so called" charity who appear to be more interested in making money out of bullying than the issue itself.

And here are a few more questions the media should be asking:
1. Do we really want a Tory government whose communications director was editor of a newspaper that employed criminals to phone tap - an illegal activity?

2. How many other political figures/MP's had their voice mail/phones tapped or came under illegal surveillance? Was Tommy Sheridan one of them? (see this link HERE)

3. Are other newspapers involved such as the Observer (see article below)? 4. When will the police reopen an investigation into all this illegal activity.

5. Will Parliament open a judicial inquiry into this whole dirty affair? (it also involved phone tapping of members of the Royal family). Here is the Guardian article:

Andy Coulson hit by new tabloid trick charges by Nick Davies

Exclusive: Paper hired convicted private eye while Tory PR chief was in charge

(Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor, is now communications director for the Conservatives)

David Cameron's communications director, Andy Coulson, will come under fresh pressure to defend his editorship of the News of the World and his knowledge about the illegal activities of his journalists amid new allegations about the paper's involvement with private detectives who broke the law.

The Guardian has learned that while Coulson was still editor of the tabloid, the newspaper employed a freelance private investigator even though he had been accused of corrupting police officers and had just been released from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail.

The private eye was well known to the News of the World, having worked for the paper for several years before he was jailed, when Coulson was deputy editor. He was rehired when he was freed.

Evidence seen by the Guardian shows that Mr A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was blagging bank accounts, bribing police officers, procuring confidential data from the DVLA and phone companies, and trading sensitive material from live police inquiries.

Coulson has always insisted he knew nothing about the illegal activity which took place in the News of the World newsroom, telling MPs last year: "I have never had any involvement in it at all."

Mr A cannot be named now because he is facing trial for a violent crime, but his details will emerge once he has been dealt with by the courts. Coulson tonight refused to say whether he was aware of Mr A's criminal background, or of his return to the paper following his prison term. He said: "I have nothing to add to the evidence I gave to the select committee."

The latest disclosures bring to four the number of investigators known to have worked for the NoW while Coulson was either editor or deputy editor of the paper. All four have since received or had criminal convictions. All four are known to have used illegal methods to gather information.

The new details emerged on the day a committee of MPs criticised the "collective amnesia" and "deliberate obfuscation" of News International executives over their attempts to cover up the phone-hacking scandal. The committee found that Coulson was right to have resigned as editor but said it had seen no evidence that he knew hacking was taking place.

The Guardian can name three more people whose voicemail messages were intercepted by the News of the World's private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, during Coulson's editorship.

George Galloway, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green, has been approached by Scotland Yard and told that, in material which they seized from Mulcaire, they found evidence to suggest that his voicemail had been intercepted. In March 2006, Galloway was the target of an apparent attempt to entrap him into making anti-semitic remarks.

David Davies, former executive director of the Football Association, has also had a similar approach from police relating to a period in early 2006 when he was preparing for the World Cup in Germany.

Brendan Montague, a freelance journalist, whose mobile phone company, T- Mobile, confirmed that his voicemail had been accessed when he was in the midst of selling a story to the Sunday Mirror. He had offered the same story to Clive Goodman, the News of the World reporter who was jailed in January 2007 for intercepting voicemail messages.

This means that a total of 19 people have now been positively identified as victims, while mobile phone companies say they found more than 100 customers whose voicemail was accessed, and Scotland Yard has conceded that, in material seized from Mulcaire, it found 91 pin codes which are needed to access voicemail if the target has changed the factory settings on his or her phone.

Scotland Yard originally claimed that there were only eight victims and has been criticised by a parliamentary report for failing to investigate more thoroughly.

Coulson and the News of the World have always insisted that they had no knowledge of voicemail hacking by Goodman and Mulcaire. Coulson tonight refused to comment on the criminal activities of any of the four private investigators who are now known to have worked for the paper when he was either deputy editor or editor.

Mr A, whose identity is known to the Guardian, was hired by the News of the World even though his involvement in blackmail and police corruption had been the subject of national news reports.

A second investigator, John Boyall, worked regularly for the paper when Coulson was deputy editor and was subsequently convicted of illegally procuring information from the police national computer.

A third, Steve Whittamore, was also convicted of illegally obtaining police data after running an extensive network of specialists who extracted confidential information from banks and phone companies for the News of the World and other newspapers, including the Observer.

The activities of the fourth investigator, Mulcaire, who was jailed in January 2007 for hacking voicemail, continue to emerge although Scotland Yard is refusing to release basic information about the case.

Assistant commissioner John Yates was criticised by the Conservative chairman of the Commons' culture and media select committee, John Whittingdale, for failing to disclose information to MPs, but the Yard continues to refuse to say how many victims it has warned, and how many members of the royal household, military, police and government have been warned of evidence that Mulcaire intercepted their voicemail.

The police resisted a freedom of information request from the Guardian for so long that they were compelled to provide a written apology for breaching the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.

They also broke an agreement with the director of public prosecutions to warn all potential victims of Mulcaire's hacking. Today, they disclosed that they would not be approaching all those whose pin codes were found in the material seized from Mulcaire.

Lawyers for public figures are increasingly angry that their clients are having to pay legal costs to discover whether or not they have been the victims of crime.

The Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, has tabled a series of parliamentary questions asking for more information and is demanding a judicial inquiry into the whole affair.

P.S. Lets hope George sues the News Of The World for all their worth!!

Link: The Guardian

Wales Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) press release

Wales Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) press release.

"Milford Haven ruling against these workers show why we are standing in the election"

A new electoral alliance is standing candidates in the forthcoming general election.

A new electoral alliance is standing candidates in the forthcoming general election.

In Wales, two prominent trade unionists and socialist campaigners are amongst the candidates. Rob Williams, reinstated convenor in the Linamar plant in Swansea will be standing in Swansea West while Ross Saunders, who the Welsh organiser of the campaign against youth unemployment, 'Youth Fight for Jobs', will be contesting Cardiff Central.

The coalition has been launched by leading trade union figures including RMT general secretary Bob Crow. It is aiming to give working people an alternative to the big business policies of the main parties.

The high court verdict today, which has outlawed the strike at Milford Haven Port by workers who are aiming to stop their pensions being attacked, shows yet again that the anti-working class laws brought in by Margaret Thatcher and the Tories have remained on the statute books despite thirteen years of Labour Party rule.

The Labour Party was formed a century ago because all the main parties stood aside when the Taff Vale ruling threatened to bankrupt the unions when their members went on strike.

Now, after this ruling today and the British Airways injunction at the end of last year, it is almost impossible for unions to take legal industrial action in order to protect their jobs, terms and conditions and pensions.

The Milford Haven ruling against these workers shows why we are standing in the election. Workers haven't got a voice. We are standing to make sure that they have a genuine alternative in this election, based on the best fighting socialist traditions of the labour and trade union movement - instead of the racist blind ally of the BNP and the far right.

TUSC is holding its Welsh launch in the Railway Club in Swansea's Wind Street at 7.30pm on Thursday March 4th 2010. The two candidates will be speaking

Link: TUSC

David Henry for Salford & Eccles MP: Hazel Must Go!

David Henry for Salford & Eccles MP: Hazel Must Go!

David is standing in the new Salford & Eccles constituency at the 2010 General Election.

He was selected by a large majority at a well attended public meeting of the "Hazel Must Go" campaign on 4th February 2010. He was a member of the Green Party at that time, and is now standing under the TUSC umbrella - that is, the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition. He has retained his links and associations with local green activists and David has been strongly endorsed by Manchester & Salford Green Party. He is currently Co-chair of Salford Youth Council.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP, NOT PRIVATISED PROFIT

INVESTVENT IN PUBLIC SERVICES, NOT CUTS

JOBS FOR THE MILLIONS, NOT BAIL-OUTS FOR THE MILLIONAIRES

WORKERS & TRADE UNION RIGHTS, EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY FOR ALL

PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT - STOP POLLUTION, GREENER THINKING

DECENT PENSIONS & BENEFITS, SAVE THE NHS & THE WELFARE STATE

EDUCATION FOR EVERYONE, SCRAP TUITION FEES

DEMOCRACY, DIVERSITY & JUSTICE, SOLIDARITY - NOT HATE OR WAR

These are the principles that the Labour Party used to be about and should be about today, but these have been betrayed by the careerists and moneygrabbers who hijacked the party. It's hard to tell if Hazel Blears was one of the hijackers or if she fell victim to a kind of reverse STOCKHOLM SYNDROME.

But one flipped home later there are over 51,000 reasons to get rid of her and put in a young and radical alternative voice. VOTE HENRY X

Can you help David Henry in the General Election (the work has already started and your help is needed urgently)?
If so please contact: Email: blearsmustgo@gmail.com / Steve North: 07817 434 240

Link: TUSC web site
Link: Follow David on Twitter
Link: David Henry Facebook site
Link: David Henry Web site

TUSC General Election Launch Rally

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition General Election Launch Rally.

Thursday 25th March 7.30pm

Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ

Speakers:
Bob Crow RMT General Secretary
Brain Caton POA General Secretary
Chris Baugh PCS Assistant General Secretary
Dave Nellist Socialist Party Councillor
Michael Lavalette Socialsit Workers Party Councillor

Link: TUSC

Official launch of the People's Charter in Birmingham

Official launch of the People's Charter in Birmingham.

Type:

Meetings - Convention

Date:	Friday, February 26, 2010
Time:	7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location:	Birmingham Council House
Street:	Victoria Square
City/Town:	Birmingham, United Kingdom
	View Map

The Official Launch of The People’s Charter in Birmingham

Birmingham Council House Rooms 3 and 4

Speakers:

Jeremy Corbyn MP
Dot Gibson (National Pensioners Convention)
Steve Hall (Wigan Peoples Alliance)
Joe Morgan (GMB Regional Secretary)
invited Salma Yaqoob (Respect Councillor)

For a Secure and Fair Future for All

Link: Facebook site

John Rees resigns from the Socialist Workers Party

John Rees resigns from the Socialist Workers Party from Solomon's Mindfield Blog.

Why we are resigning from SWP: an open letter

Comments are on this post are heavily moderated. Please feel free to leave personal messages and comments below. There are plenty of blogs where discussions about the SWP and the Left Platform are taking place so I would be grateful if those who want to wade into the debate could visit those sites. Thanks to everyone who has contacted me directly and I look forward to working with everyone in the future: we have a world to win!

The letter - which was emailed to Martin Smith, Socialist Workers Party National Secretary, around lunchtime today - is signed by 42 SWP members. A further 18 people who have resigned from the SWP in recent weeks endorse it too. The full lists of names appear at the foot of this post.

'We are writing to resign from the Socialist Workers Party. We do this with great sadness but the events of recent weeks leave us with little choice.

The immediate reason for our resignation is the attempt by the Central Committee to stop Lindsey German, the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, from speaking at a Stop the War meeting in Newcastle. This demand was justified by the claim that the meeting was ‘disputed’ or bogus. In fact, it was a properly constituted Stop the War public meeting, agreed at two consecutive Tyneside steering committees. Two SWP members tried to block the meeting because it clashed with a party branch meeting. The Stop the War meeting was a success, but was boycotted by the local SWP. The Central Committee demanded that Lindsey should not go to the meeting and ‘reserved the right’ to take disciplinary action if she attended.

Such sectarian behaviour does enormous damage to the standing of the party in the movement. Unfortunately, it fits into what is now a well-established pattern.

For many years, the SWP has played a dynamic role in the development of mass movements in Britain. The party made an important contribution to the great anti-capitalist mobilisations at the start of the decade, it threw itself into the Stop the War Coalition and was central to the Respect electoral project. These achievements were dependent on an open, non-sectarian approach to joint work with others on the left and a systematic commitment to building the movements.

The SWP leadership has abandoned this approach. The task of building broad, political opposition in every area to the disasters created by neoliberalism and war is now subordinated to short term party building. We believe this undermines both the movements and the prospects of building an open and effective revolutionary current in the British working class.

The most glaring mistake has been the SWP’s refusal to engage with others in shaping a broad left response to the recession, clearly the most pressing task facing the left. Even valuable recent initiatives, like the Right to Work campaign, have minimised the involvement of Labour MPs, union leaders and others who have the capability to mobilise beyond the traditional left.

An authoritarian internal regime has developed as a result of this change in direction. In the run up to the recent party conference, four members of the Left Platform opposition were disciplined, three of them expelled. Since the conference, four of the remaining student comrades at the School of Oriental and African studies in London have been effectively pushed out of the party. A comrade in Newcastle was given an ultimatum to resign from a key position in the local movement in January. He resigned from the party and 10 comrades left in protest at his treatment. The use of disciplinary methods to ‘win’ arguments is completely foreign to the traditions to the SWP and should have no place in the socialist movement.

For these reasons we are now submitting our resignations. We do not do so lightly and we will of course remain active socialists and revolutionaries. We all joined the party because we felt it would make us more effective. Sadly, we now feel that is no longer the case. We have, however, enormous respect for the many fine comrades in the SWP and we regard it as essential to continue to work with SWP members in the unions and campaigns, since we all share a broad agreement on the need to confront recession, war and fascism. We remain convinced of the need for revolutionary socialist organisation. In fact, the need for a radical political alternative and resistance on a massive scale has rarely been more urgent.'

William Alderson

Sian Barrett

Christophe Chataigne

Kate Connelly

Margi Corcoran

Adrian Cousins

Anita de Klerk

Noel Douglas

Reid Dudley-Smith

Mark Ewington

Camille Fairbairn

Sam Fairbairn

Neil Faulkner

Des Freedman

Jo Gough

Elaine Graham-Leigh

Maham Hashmi

Madeline Hennigan

Penny Hicks

James Hilsdon

Feyzi Ismail

Sean Jackson

Naz Massoumi

Narz Massoumi

James Meadway

Brendan Montague

Jackie Mulhalen

Chris Nineham

Samantha Carwenne Oxby

Henry Parkyn-Smith

Dan Poulton

Tia Randall

John Rees

Kirsty Richardson

Steve Sacre

Angela Selleck

Mark D Smith

Guy Taylor

Carole Vincent

John Whearty

Tom Whittaker

Hesham Yafai

The following have resigned in recent weeks and would like to endorse this statement.

Elly Badcock

Will Bowman

Jane Claveley

John Cooper

Adam Cornell

Kevin Deane

Tony Dowling

James Kennell

Dave McAlister

Jack McGlen

Viva Msimang

Matt Richards

Sara El Sheekh

Caitlin Southern

Lindy Syson

Owen Taylor

Mark Tyers

Sonia Van De Bilt

Link: Solomon's Mindfield

The real benefit cheats? The Stasi ranks of Hard Labour

The real benefit cheats? The Stasi ranks of Hard Labour by Zoe Williams in guardian.co.uk.

The supergrass wheeze is just another example of coarse, wilfully ignorant rabble-rousing from the top ranks of government.

I'd love to see the benefit cheat ­advertisements remodelled, to target public sector expenses fraud. You could have a lord, ­pegging out the washing, and then big, scary writing … "You in the wig! We're on to you. Your mother's house in Carmarthenshire is not your primary residence … You do not spend £174 a day in legitimate expenses … One day soon, we're going to be very peeved."

Of all the cheats civilisation can conceive – from MPs through dodgy tax-domicilers, insider dealers and hedge-fund scamsters to cheats so rotten with bad faith that they nearly brought down global finance before anybody stopped to think whether or not they should be illegal – nobody gets it stuck to them worse than the person who did a night cash-in-hand in the pub, as well as claiming jobseeker's allowance.

Benefit cheats might account for 6,000 prosecutions a year, but their cost to society – an estimated £1.1bn annually – is considerably less than the combined loss, to the benefits office, caused by honest mistakes (£1.1bn in punter-error, £800m in mistakes committed by the Department for Work and Pensions). It's interesting, isn't it, that the DWP makes that many errors in its own system: it must be pretty complicated. In fact, it's so complicated that means-tested benefits, combined with means-tested tax credits, go unclaimed to the sum of £16bn.

For every pound you spend, ­taxpayer, on the dishonest underclass, you save nearly £16 by virtue of bureaucracy so complicated that neither the underclass nor the overclass can understand it. What a result! It's all so obvious, it sounds like 1980s agitprop. I'll be on about single mothers next, and how most of them are doing a really good job.

It's not, however, so obvious that Labour's manifesto team isn't re-examining the issue, really trying to think outside the box of human decency and push the envelope way past out of order, all the way to "are you kidding?".

Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary, has suggested to Ed Miliband, Labour's manifesto co-ordinator, that people who inform on benefit cheats should get a share of any cash saved. This probably won't even make it as an election promise: they just leaked it so they could sound like tough guys, talking turkey with the Tories. "Huh! Remember that soppy liberal you couldn't stand? We binned him! Adios old Labour, goodbye New – hello Hard Labour. Feel my pecs." I've heard nothing from any party that sounds more like the Stasi. How much more old Labour can you get?

Since it probably isn't serious, should we even bite? But this kind of "initiative" is not just a short cut to an image makeover. Critics have said already that, were this measure to be introduced, it would unpick social cohesion and encourage neighbourly mischief rather than meaningful snitching. But this is to pass over the social dissonance that is created even before policy is drafted, when politicians engage in this coarse, wilfully ignorant rabble-rousing.

Numerous studies have established that people greatly overestimate the cost of benefit cheating, both absolutely and compared to white-collar crime. It has been found that people across the political spectrum are more judgmental towards the very poor than they were 20 years ago, often inaccurately assuming them to be lazier and more fiscally ­coddled than in fact they are.

"The extent to which people manage to fiddle the system to their own advantage is greatly overstated in popular imagination and fed by the tabloid press. But you only need one well-documented case to damage confidence." That was John Denham, the Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, commenting just before the Labour conference last year. It's not just the tabloids, though, is it? They get quite a lot of help from the top ranks of the party in government. And it's not really one well-documented case. More like an amorphous mass of feckless, poor people that Hard Labour is going to get really, really tough on.

On the same day as this supergrass wheeze was leaked, a Populus poll, commissioned by the Times, found that 70% of voters believe Britain is now broken; three-fifths of respondents said they "hardly recognised the country they're living in"; and 42% would emigrate if they could.

In fairness, much of this "broken" rhetoric was started by David Cameron. You can tell because, when you bite it for authenticity, like a jeweller from the olden days, it turns out to have no meaning at all. But a more courageous government wouldn't even get into this landscape the Tories insist upon, where the feral unemployed run riot in town centres while their unmarried babymothers leech bennies off the state to spend on cigarettes and Diamond White.

A government of integrity and coherence would insist upon sticking to the facts: that the cheats are offset by the people who don't claim, so the benefits bill is nothing like the spiralling cashfest it's made out to be; that benefit cheats are not the scourge of the economy, their numbers are not huge, and their crimes are not major; and even the real eye-openers – the football referee on disability benefit, the couple claiming housing benefit for numerous addresses – are notable for their perversity, not to mention rarity. This is Primark policy-making: it looks cheap, and it is cheap. But it's not free and it's not victimless.

Link: Child Poverty Action Group

Lindsey German Resigns from SWP!

Lindsey German Resigns from SWP! from A Very Public Sociologist blog.

Shocking but true! A comrade has forwarded me this incredible email exchange between Lindsey German and SWP national organiser, Martin Smith. There is background to this dispute, which is dealt with here on Alex's site. I will just say that after 30 years loyal service to the SWP, I find it amazing that Martin Smith can treat the resignation of one of its best known activists in such a cavalier fashion.

Dear Lindsey,

On behalf of the CC, we are repeating our request that you don't speak at the disputed StW meeting in Newcastle tonight [Wednesday 10th February]. We expect you, like all SWP members, to respect our decisions.

We also think that it is imperative that you meet with members of the CC at the earliest possible opportunity. Could you please give us some dates when you are free.

Martin Smith (SWP National Secretary)

...

Dear Martin,

I asked Judith whether I would be subject to disciplinary action if I went to Newcastle. Your reply is ambiguous on this question. Could you please clarify. The STW meeting is not disputed, as you put it. It was agreed at two Tyneside STW steering committees, despite our comrades raising why I was going to the meeting. I therefore think your request is misplaced.

Lindsey

...

Dear Lindsey,

We have already made our decision very clear to you. If you ignore our request we reserve the right to respond as we see fit.

Martin

...

Dear Martin,

It is clear from your reply that your request is in fact an instruction not to speak in Newcastle tonight at the Stop the War meeting.

I regard such a course of action as damaging both to the party and STW. The meeting is properly constituted as evidenced by two sets of minutes of steering committee. There is no good reason for me to withdraw and none that I could possibly justify to STW members locally or nationally.

I have always tried to prevent internal disputes from damaging the movement. I feel that you have brought these disputes into STW and that is unacceptable.

It is therefore with the greatest regret that I am resigning from the SWP. This is a very hard decision for me. I joined more than 37 years ago and have always been committed to building it, which in my view meant relating to the wider movement.

I was on the CC for 30 years, edited the Review for 20 and played a major role in the movement and party building. My respect and affection for many party members remains, and my commitment to socialism as ever. I hope to continue working with them in the wider movement.

Lindsey German

..

Lindsey,

I acknowledge receipt of your resignation and have amended our records accordingly.

Please note it is your responsibility to inform your bank to close your Direct Debit/Standing Order.

Martin Smith (SWP National Secretary)

Link: A Very Public Sociologist

Banning the fascists? by Michael Lavalette

Banning the fascists? by Michael Lavalette

Preston City Council was presented with a “Delegation of Powers” report at our full council meeting on Thursday of last week.

This sounds like a bureaucratic piece of local authority gobbledygook to most sane people. And it was the last item on a long council agenda – surely it couldn’t be important?

Actually the council was trying to push through a very significant report on the quiet.

It asked councillors to delegate powers to the “governance director” and the chief executive, under the Public Order Act (1986). In consultation with the leader of the council this would allow them to approach the home secretary to ban marches and assemblies that might cause “serious disorder”.

The timing is not accidental. Recently the racist English Defence League (EDL) has tried to assemble or march in various towns across Britain.

A few months ago Manchester City Council claimed it would like to ban the EDL, but couldn’t. Apparently, it had no authority to approach the home secretary for a banning order because the EDL was not marching – merely assembling.

This January hundreds of EDL‑supporting racists went on the rampage in Stoke, smashing up Asian businesses, overturning cars and attacking local Muslims.

So it’s understandable that some people are attracted to the idea of banning the EDL thugs and keeping them off our streets.

It’s against this background that local authorities have begun to look at their procedures for banning potentially unruly demonstrations.

Unfortunately the issue is not quite so simple or straightforward as banning fascist thugs.

The Public Order Act (1936) first formalised the banning of demonstrations and assemblies. It was supposedly introduced to control the British Union of Fascists which was trying to march through Jewish areas at the time.

Underground

Yet banning orders were rarely used against the far right. Indeed it was often argued that banning the fascists would merely force them underground and make the problem “even worse”.

Instead the orders have been repeatedly used against the left – against trade unionists, flying pickets, anti-war activists and global justice campaigners.

The Public Order Act is a serious threat to our right of assembly – our right to gather and protest against the injustice in our world. It could be used against us in Preston when we protest against the Israeli table tennis team, who are playing in the city on 2 March.

But there is another reason we should be wary of the public order bans. They suggest that the state is the best vehicle for defeating fascism.

Currently, the police and local authorities swing into action whenever the EDL announces a march.

They put a huge effort into meeting trade union officers, community leaders, and anyone who will listen. Their aim is to persuade people to stay away from the EDL and the anti-fascist counter-mobilisations.

Where they are successful – as they were to a degree in Stoke – they leave black and Asian communities vulnerable to rampaging thugs.

But as Birmingham and Harrow show, minority communities are safer when they organise alongside anti-fascists to protect themselves and to defend their communities.

Mobilisations on the streets will defeat and isolate the fascists, not banning orders and reliance on the state.

In Preston the report on “delegated powers” was defeated. I brought up all the points I have raised in this column at the council meeting.

In the process all the Labour councillors were won over and several of the Liberal Democrats.

Any request from the police to ban a march or an assembly in Preston will have to be debated before an emergency full council meeting.

A small victory, perhaps, but an important one in the present climate.

Michael Lavalette is an independent socialist councillor in Preston. He is a member of the Socialist Workers Party

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Link: Unite Against Fascism
Link: Socialist Worker link to this article

Greek public sector workers strike as spectre of bailout looms

Greek public sector workers strike as spectre of bailout looms - Graeme Wearden - The Guardian (pic from endiaferon on flickr)

Public sector workers in Greece have clashed with police during a nationwide one-day strike in protest at the austerity measures being implemented to try to address the country's financial crisis.

Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Athens, according to local reports, after garbage collectors tried to team up with other strikers by driving their trucks through a police cordon. Hundreds more people gathered at Syntagma Square in the centre of the capital, some waving banners or beating drums, to voice their opposition to the spending cuts.

"It's a war against workers and we will answer with war, with constant struggles until this policy is overturned," Christos Katsiotis, a representative of a communist-party affliated union, told the Associated Press.

A demonstration is planned outside the Greek parliament later today.

The prime minister, George Papandreou, who is in Paris to discuss the economic crisis with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, has already faced down a protest by farmers demanding higher subsidy payments who staged tractor blockades on Greek highways for nearly three weeks.

It emerged last night that Greece's European partners may be close to agreeing a bailout, with German officials saying a deal had been agreed "in principle". An EU summit in Brussels tomorrow will address the Greek crisis in the hope of containing the growing threat to the eurozone.

Non-urgent hospital appointments have been cancelled, and schools across Greece will remain closed. Air traffic control staff are also taking part in the dispute, meaning flights in and out of the country will be heavily disrupted. Greece's largest airline, Aegean Airways, has suspended all its services, while British Airways has cancelled three scheduled flights from Heathrow to Athens.

Union leaders called the action in protest at Papandreou's plans for spending restraint including cuts in public sector pay and bonuses, and a freeze on hiring new employees.

Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of the public sector union ADEDY, accused Papandreou of targeting the wrong people in his efforts to fight the debt crisis that threatens Greece's financial stability and raises the spectre of contagion across the eurozone.

"They had promised the rich would pay but instead they take the money from the poor," Iliopoulos said. ADEDY also accused the Greek government of planning "permanent austerity" and "the bankruptcy of employees and pensioners".

Papandreou, though, had urged civil servants not to strike at a time when European leaders are considering a bailout for Greece.

"Our primary duty is to save the economy and to reduce debt while seeking just solutions that protect as much as possible those on lower incomes and the middle class," he said.

Today's strike was planned before the Greek government announced its latest cutback measure yesterday – raising the average retirement age from 61 to 63.

Stock markets across Europe rose this morning, buoyed by hopes that a rescue package for Greece will be agreed when European leaders meet tomorrow.

Further strikes are planned for later this month.

Video: Greek tax strike closes tax office

Link: And in the UK: Sussex students stand firm at university occupation
Link: Greek unions flex muscle against wage cuts - Morning Star
Link: Live blog: Greeks go on strike
Link: Greek strike tests government's austerity mettle

Link: The Guardian - link to this article

Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts

Susses University.
Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts - Jessica Shepherd and Owen Bowcott - guardian.co.uk

• Post-graduates to replace professors
• Staff poised to strike over proposals of cuts

Universities across the country are preparing to axe thousands of teaching jobs, close campuses and ditch courses to cope with government funding cuts, the Guardian has learned.

Other plans include using post-graduates rather than professors for teaching and the delay of major building projects. The proposals have already provoked ballots for industrial action at a number of universities in the past week raising fears of strike action which could severely disrupt lectures and examinations.

The Guardian spoke to vice-chancellors and other senior staff at 25 universities, some of whom condemned the funding squeeze as "painful" and "insidious". They warned that UK universities were being pushed towards becoming US-style, quasi-privatised institutions.

The cuts are being put in place to cope with the announcement last week by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) that £449m – equivalent to more than a 5% reduction nationally – would be stripped out of university budgets.

The University and College Union (UCU) believes that more than 15,000 posts – the majority academic – could disappear in the next few years. Precise funding figures for each university will be released on 18 March.

The chairman of the Russell Group of elite institutions, Professor Michael Arthur, vice-chancellor of Leeds University, warned that budgets would be further slashed by 6% in each of the next three years. Last month he described the cuts as "devastating".

The savings envisaged include:

• More than 200 jobs losses at King's College, London, around 150 at the University of Westminster and, unions claim, as many as 700 at Leeds, 340 at Sheffield Hallam and 300 at Hull.

• Entire campus closures at Cumbria and Wolverhampton universities, where buildings will be mothballed and students transferred to other sites.

• Teesside University scrapping £2m worth of scholarships and bursaries that would have helped poorer students. It will also share services with a further education college in Darlington.

• Postponing plans for a £25m creative arts building at Worcester and £12m science block at Hertfordshire.

• Under-subscribed arts and humanities courses are being dropped. The University of the West of England has already stopped offering French, German and Spanish; Surrey has dropped its BA in humanities.

• Student/lecturer ratios are expected to rise, with more institutions using postgraduates and short term staff filling in for professors made redundant.

Ballots for industrial action are due to be held or are pending at the University of the Arts, Sussex University, the University of Gloucestershire and King's College London. Lecturers at Leeds – where 750 posts are at risk – voted by a large majority to strike this week.

Higher exam pass marks will be required to win a place at university, according to the survey of academic principals. The cap on student numbers – set at 2008 levels – is restricting entry just as youth unemployment is peaking and intensifying competitive pressure.

Peter Mandelson, the business secretary who is in charge of universities, accused the principals of "gross exaggerations" and "extreme language", but would not be drawn over whether he would make further cuts to higher education. Universities had to do "no more than their fair share of belt-tightening," he said.

"We know that universities have a vital contribution to our economic growth, so we are not going to undermine them. We are asking for savings of less than 5% and we expect universities to make these in a way that minimises the impact on teaching and students. I am confident they will."

Mandelson also denied claims by vice-chancellors that he was letting arts and humanities courses close and cared only about maths and science degrees.

On Monday it was announced that an extra £10m would go to the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to support universities "that are shifting the balance of their provision towards these subjects".

Mandelson said: "I am an arts graduate myself. We don't dictate to universities which courses they put on. They tailor courses to meet demand. We want universities to play to their strengths, but we also want to keep this country civilised."

The pattern of cutbacks is not uniform, with some universities insisting they have been preparing for the downturn. Many have already dropped more vulnerable subjects such as music and history, increased fees for part-time students and expect to become even more reliant on income from higher, overseas student fees.

The vice-chancellor of Southampton, Professor Don Nutbeam, told the Guardian: "This [decision by Hefce] is one of a series of insidious cuts that have been made to higher education."

Professor Geoffrey Petts, vice-chancellor of Westminster University, said: "After a decade of huge successes in higher education we suddenly have to rethink."

Tomorrow the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (Ucas) is due to announce record numbers of applications for places this autumn. It is expected that as many as 300,000 applicants will be turned away.

The surge in demand comes as a government-commissioned independent review considers whether to raise tuition fees from £3,225 per year to up to £7,000. Over three years total cuts will amount to at least £950m.

The policy adopted by the government is in stark contrast to the response in the US where President Obama this week proposed a 31% increase in education spending for next year in order to combat unemployment and develop skills.

Link: NHS, education, services, jobs...‘We’re fighting to stop the cuts now’ - Socialist Worker
Link: The Guardian

TUSC left coalition to stand in general election

TUSC left coalition to stand in general election- by Martin Smith SWP National Secretary.

Two Labour ministers have now let slip that the general election is going to be on Thursday 6 May.

In just three months time the country will go to the polls—and the question facing every socialist and activist will be which party to vote for.

There is no easy answer, and many people will be considering not voting at all.

The economic crisis continues to rip through working class communities. The threat of a Tory government sends chills down the spines of everyone who remembers Margaret Thatcher’s years in power.

But for many the idea of voting Labour is tough to swallow.

Labour betrayals

For 13 years we have seen Labour abandon and betray the people who swept it to power.

It took us into an illegal war in Iraq, and a futile and murderous occupation of Afghanistan.

Under Labour the divide between rich and poor has increased to the greatest levels since the Second World War.

These betrayals, coupled with its failure to address the concerns of working class people, have fuelled bitterness and despair.

This has created a vacuum in British politics.

And the danger is that, without a left alternative, the right can fill the vacuum.

Anyone who has campaigned against the fascist British National Party (BNP) knows that it feeds off the despair in society. This makes the need for a socialist alternative even more urgent.

That is why the Socialist Workers Party has joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

TUSC is exactly what it says on the tin—an electoral coalition of trade unionists and socialists.

It is going to stand in around 40 constituencies in England and Wales, and it will also be standing in Scotland.

It has the potential to offer working class people a real choice at the ballot box and has policies the left can unite around.

TUSC is not a political party. It is a coalition with a federal structure.

All prospective candidates will be expected to endorse the coalition’s core policy statement, with the provision that candidates will be responsible for their own campaign.

The failure of left wing trade unions such as the RMT, the PCS or the FBU to formally endorse the coalition is a disappointment.

The Communist Party of Britain has also voted not to support the project.

However, RMT general secretary Bob Crow is supporting the coalition in a personal capacity.

Many RMT and Prison Officers Association branches are supporting TUSC.

In several areas RMT activists, supported by their branches, are standing as TUSC candidates. Portsmouth and Carlisle RMT branches have been the first to declare that they are standing.

It is a small but important step in the creation of a new, trade union-backed socialist coalition that can provide the alternative that people crave.

Important first steps

TUSC has so far drawn support from a number of union officials, the SWP, the Socialist Party, the Indian Workers Association (GB), the Hazel Blears Must Go campaign, the Socialist People’s Party (Barrow) and a number of independent councillors.

TUSC will not be standing against left wing Labour or Respect candidates.

Every group affiliated to TUSC will put up candidates and run socialist and grassroots election campaigns.

The SWP will, of course, support all TUSC candidates.

But we will be central to campaigns in a number of constituencies, including Preston, Sheffield, Manchester, Cambridge and Tottenham.

Nobody believes that the general election is going to be easy for the left. We have a lot of work to do.

The threat of a Tory victory means there is real pressure from some quarters to stick with Labour, despite its betrayals.

The break up of the Respect coalition and the Scottish Socialist Party means that the left’s electoral projects have been weakened and fragmented.

Hopefully TUSC can begin the process of uniting the left.

With good and vibrant local campaigns we may be able to gain a respectable vote.

But the other test for TUSC must be the possibility of pulling together a network of activists.

This means uniting socialists, trade unionists, anti-war campaigners, students, pensioners, the new migrant communities, and all those who want to resist the cuts and attacks on our class.

This election campaign can become a stepping stone towards a stronger and more rooted electoral organisation.

Union support

The PCS civil service workers’ union will be discussing standing and supporting trade union candidates in elections at its annual conference in June. It will ballot its members on this in the early autumn.

This would be a historic step for a national trade union to take and could significantly strengthen any left of Labour coalition.

But that is in the future.

We know that jobs, services and pensions are going to come under the axe—whoever wins the election.

There will also be serious discussions after the election, no matter who wins, about the way forward for the labour movement.

TUSC can and must be a part of this.

It can begin to offer working class people an alternative, one with socialism at its heart.

TUSC's core policies include:

• Opposition to public spending cuts and privatisation
• Investment in publicly-owned and controlled renewable energy
• Repeal of the anti-trade union laws
• Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
• Opposition to the Nazi BNP, racism and all forms of discrimination
• Bringing into democratic public ownership the major companies and banks that dominate the economy

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Editors Note:

The editor of this blog believes that Respect made a fatal mistake when it failed to agree to become a sponsor of TUSC at its national conference and those that supported this position in Respect were called "ultra left" from the platform. Still its does not appear to be a problem for the SWP, the Socialist Party, the Indian Workers Association (GB), Socialist Resistence (part of the Respect Party) the Hazel Blears Must Go campaign, the Socialist People’s Party (Barrow) and a number of independent councillors and many others. I would urge you to support it and become an individual sponsor (see link below).

Link: TUSC

Link: Socialist Worker