Political Funding

I found this Hansard debate in the Commons from the 4th March 2009 very interesting. According to Patrick McFadden MP, Unite the Union has one of the largest percentages of members who are not contributing to the political fund, and therefore for one reason or another, are not financing the Labour party. For many of their members it may because they feel that Labour are not socialist enough, and indeed this could be the case with a significant proportion of Communication Workers Union members, who have a long history of industrial action, and whose support of the Labour party has evaporated in recent months in protest against plans to privatise the pension fund of Royal Mail.

In contrast Connect are a professional union, representing mostly managerial and "white-collar" staff. People who are statistically more likely to support the Liberal Democrats or the Conservative party. That is not even to consider those members in Scotland or Wales, who support the cause of independence.For whatever reason, I find it interesting to see so many of my fellow trade union members who don't feel obligated to pay into the coffers of the Labour party. How many do not realise that they have the choice?