An organisation called 'London in Business' is currently inviting business representatives to a
cash for access business brunch with Treasury Chief Secretary Stephen Timms next Tuesday morning for £80 a head. Nothing suspicious about that you might think, until you look at the small print and discover that 'London in Business' is run out of 39 Victoria Street - the same address as Labour Party HQ - and is chaired by Kevin McGrath, a property developer who stood as Labour candidate for North East Hampshire in 2005.
Event details:
Business Brunch with Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Tuesday 3 April 10-11.30am
Olswang London, 90 High Holborn, London WC1V 6XXShouldn't organisations like 'London in Business' have to be more upfront about their political connections? And if Olswang are hosting the event, why is
the Labour Party 'London in Business' charging £80? I think we know the answer.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
An organisation called 'London in Business' is currently inviting business representatives to a
who is he then? whats he supposed to know about? at first glance its not obvious what anyone is going to learn from someone at the treasury.
ReplyDeletedo they do kippers?
As covered by the Guardian in April 2006...
ReplyDeleteNo, but if he pays me £80 I am happy to turn up to make up the numbers!
ReplyDeleteI would have thought that "patrons Tessa Jowell and Ken Livingstone" might be a bit of a clue, Iain.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I agree, shabby.
I think I would pay £80 NOT to have breakfast with Stephen Timms........ I saw him on Newsnight getting really irritated about the Budget being deconstructed....
ReplyDeleteSounds extraordinarily like one of those Tory events that used to (still do?) take place in the HoP? Like those Bullingdon days all over again.
ReplyDeleteMain difference is that it has a cheaper ticket and will probably have less twin sets and pearls by a factor of 10.
Business 4 Labour is a long standing organisation - strangeley enough related to raising support and funds for Labour - and your correspondent even went to a dinner in Manchester.
Naturally as we all wear clogs up here and have to copper up to buy a Manchester Guardian it was cheaper. But we did get the national dish. That's Chicken Tikka Masala.
And I sat in the company of - in fact as right hand man to - Hazel Blears who then as now reckoned she was not New Labour but just sensible Labour aka career-wise Labour.
Has it been a slow day down in London Iain? What about Fawkes trying to swindle his own readers with a poll about an interview he must surely have already recorded?
PS
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get the Minister we were supposed to get. Just some very boring bag carrier. Might actually have been Timms. Can't remember. Yawn.
Chris Paul: "And I sat in the company of - in fact as right hand man to - Hazel Blears..."
ReplyDeleteI can see Iain turning green from here...
Is Stephen Timms the tall chap who now does the gigs that Balls used to do?
ok - this form of prostituting out MP's as a small scale fundraising excercise does annoy me.
ReplyDeleteBUT, t'was ever thus. I'd dearly love to be shocked!
£80 is pretty cheap if there is a decent breakfast thrown in.
ReplyDeleteNever mind "who is he then?". Who is David Miliband, more importantly, given that he has launched his leadership bid. I'll let Iain into my little secret...the story is over at my place.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to do a better job blacking out the recipient, as Ms. Mette Jenson might say. (seriously, don't you know that just taking a marker to it is not enough; when you scan it, the bright light makes it possible to make out the name....)
ReplyDeleteIstead of wasting the time taxpayers pay them - far too handsomely - for obsessing on trying to get re-elected, Blair-Brown and nulab should spend some time working on our near bankrupt NHS.
ReplyDeleteRead the shameful comments on BBC Online News Have Your Say about impossiblity of finding an NHS dentist. The following two comments say it all:
"Are you having trouble finding an NHS dentist? Mate, I'm having trouble finding an NHS."
"the Labour government takes more of my money to provide me with fewer services. God,how I hate them."
Auntie Flo'
Iain, some time ago I ran a story on the Dome, and the same say someone from Olswang was looking at the story, with no referring link.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significance of Olswang other than that they are lawyers.
Timms is one of the most anoying cabinet ministers we've had in a long while (and thats saying something!) He's so 'nice' to Paxman, etc, and reveals so little that he can beat ANYONE! Not only that but I hear he is one of the most active memebers of the Christian-Socialist organisation. Oh, and he's supposedly a Brownite.
ReplyDelete*******Im reading this in bed and the latop screen is at a funy angle.
ReplyDeleteYou can actually see who this was addressed to.
You might need to go through the name again with another pen.
Ms Jensen might not be happy!
A computer-guided style analysis tells me that Chris Paul is The Darbyshires!
ReplyDeleteAdmit it - you are, aren't you! The lexical diarrhoea, the mememe contents, the Pennine Chain I-Know-Everything certainty.
It's you Leah, isintit?
Oh, Leah, and you thought we'd never spottitt. You minx, you.
So how much is the cash for access to Cameron's office, you snivelling hypocrits?
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6506989.stm