Questions are being asked about the Unity Trust Bank and the scandals surrounding the "cash / loans for honours" scandal which the Labour Party spin doctors have been mahaging to keep of the front pages for a while.
Unity Trust Bank describes itself as
a socially responsible organisation providing banking and membership services to the trade union, charity, voluntary, credit union and membership organisation sectors.
and is financed by various Trades Unions and The Co-operative Bank plc
Following this article in the Daily Telegraph, regarding the dire financial straights of the Labour Party (and to a lesser extent the other main political parties, revealed by the Electoral Commission), it seems that the British political blogosphere is starting to do what it should be best at, i.e. probing more deeply into the story than mainstream media journalists can be bothered or are allowed to do, and bringing expert opinion and common sense to their anslayses.
Hopefully if there is suffcient blog chatter about this topic , it will be re-visited by the media, and scarce investigative journalistic resources will be applied.
Guido Fawkes picked up on the story, noting that the Unity Trust Bank's supposedly ethical lending policy, which should preclude it from doing business with people implicated in dubious political activities and who are under criminal investigation. - Unions Launder Support Via Unity Trust Bank But Isn't Labour a Bad Credit Risk?
He has subsequently done some estimations about the relatively small capital base of the bank, and the disproportionate amount of this which has been lent to the Labour Party. He is hinting that the Financial Services Authority, which is supposed to regulate the Unity Trust Bank is taking an interest, but does not yet seem to have launched a formal investigation. - Unity Trust Bank - "FSA Monitoring the Situation"
quarsan of Blairwatch has been writing letters / emails asking about the Co-op Bank's ethics policy and the obvious conflict with NuLabour's policies on human rights, foreign wars etc. - Dialogue With a Labour Donor
Guido is, naturally enough, is asking for whistleblowers from the FSA or the Bank, or the Co-op, or, presumably from the hundreds of Labour Party staff who are being made redundant as a result of the Labour Party's financial crisiis.
It is worthwhile for potential whistleblowers, and bloggers or journalists, to remind themselves about the obvious, and the not so immediately obvious precautions about protecting the identity of confidential sources, as outlined in the Home Office whistleblowers - hints and tips, which are also relevant to this story.
The Electoral Commission website has a searchable Register of Donations to political parties, which it should form the basis of several future blog posts and, perhaps mainstream media stories. e.g. the Donations to the Labour Party in the first 2 Quarters of 2006
We will certainly be keeping an eye on Government contracts involving companies (or their clients), like
- Sovereign Strategy Ltd (described by SourceWatch as "a UK policy and lobbying shop, with strong connections to the Labour Party.")
- EUK Consulting -
"offering advice and assistance on relations with parliament and government; lobbying and public affairs. Services cover London, Brussels and the European Union"
Relatively small donations by multi-national companies like Tesco and Nestlé, may simply be part of their habit of giving money to maore than one political party, but these are also worth looking at more deply.
We will also be watching future Honours lists for individuals who have recently donated £250,000 each such as Mr William Bollinger (described by The Times as "a former oil analyst with Goldman Sachs, and co-founder of Egerton Capital") and Sir Ronald Cohen (described by The Telegraph as "the co-founder of the private equity firm Apax and a close associate of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor")
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