What the Lib Dems didn’t want us to film
It was one part of the Lib Dems conference they didn’t want us to film. The party’s annual Corporate Day, at which 80 businessmen have paid £800 each to attend meetings and seminars here in Birmingham, for what are advertised as “breakout policy sessions with senior Lib Dems”.
Among those they’ve been meeting are the junior business minister Ed Davey. And tonight 200 business people are due to attend the party’s business dinner where premium tables cost £5,000 for 10 people.
Among those I came across this afternoon were business people from tobacco companies. We get better access here than from the Department of Health, Stephen Stotesbury of Imperial Tobacco told me.
But party officials were clearly embarrassed and upset by our presence. They kept turning their backs on our camera, and eventually asked us to leave the corridor outside the hall.
One party official, Ibrahim Taguri, kept insisting it was just an opportunity to get its message across to business. We later discovered, though, that he’s the Lib Dems’ chief fundraiser.
Nick Clegg’s spokeswoman Olly Grender says: “A corporate day is a standard event at all party conferences, but if you’re against it, then I suggest you join our campaign for public funding of politics, which is what Lib Dems believe in.”
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There are 17 comments on this post
“A corporate day is a standard event at all party conferences, but if you’re against it, then I suggest you join our campaign for public funding of politics, which is what Lib Dems believe in.”
Or you could just take money from firms that don’t make their profits from killing people.
We really are seeing the true colours of the LibDems now, aren’t we? As capable of simultaneous smugness and moral reprehensibility as any other group of politicians.
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Sorry? Why should any one industry be allowed to fund a party more than the another? You’re suggesting that they prejudice certain firms over others? Perhaps a bit like the BNP that only takes money from white people?
If only the world really was as black and white as some people seem to see it.
Either the system changes so politics are publicly funded – or you have equal opportunities for businesses to fund.
Politicians aren’t saints – we all know that. Deal with it, or come up with a better system. Or of course, you could just be British and moan about it.
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“come up with a better system”
OK, then we would have to put it before parliament to change it. and what do you think they are going to say? Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
Jeez, they cant even admit in public that the banks are the cause of the ‘crash’ due to self interest!
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Utter tripe – any political party that is looking to break into the duopoly (which the Lib Dems should rightly be doing) needs a substantial warchest to compete.
Where exactly should this money come from? It’s pretty clear from Labour and the Tories that the choices are:
a) Rich benefactors (see Ashcroft, various Labour donors know enjoying a seat in the Lords)
b) Trade Unions (that’s working well for Labour at the moment isn’t it, Ed will be paying them to stay away before long)
c) Corporations (both Labour and the Tories do this extensively)
If you were Nick Clegg, what would you do?
Who’s to say the Lib Dems aren’t just swindling money out of these people anyway – there’s no guarantee that the party has to listen at all.
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I’m afraid so.
LibDems lost their substatial state funding for being an opposition party.
On the same token, you can hardly blame Cameron for hiring Coulson in order to get Murdoch on board.
Especially when the Labour Party decimated everything that was good about this country and needed to be pushed out.
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Utter scum. Neotories.
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Well they have really reached a low haven’t they. Rolling in poo with Tories makes you stink just the same. I wonder if their Champagne party on the first night could have paid for a few people to have jobs for a year or two. Making it possible to Buy influence and contact – it will come crashing down on them – lets hope its soon
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So the Limp Dems are just closet Tories. It all makes sense about the coalition.
We need a revolution and soon, bring back Wolfie Smith: “Power to the People”, “Up the Tooting Popular Front”.
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Important that this got out, puts a different gloss on things, as they say in Texas ‘all hat, no cattle’.
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Probably just the tip of an iceberg of backhanding influences. The vile scum of politics.
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[...] caught schmoozing with Big TobaccoLiberal Democrat’s have held a Corporate Day at their conference. Business people paid £800 each to attend (£5,000 for a table of 10). Libdems [...]
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Hang on a minute, without wishing to sound too naive, what do you mean ‘they don’t want us to film’? (which by the way is quite obvious from the footage). This is suppose to be a democratically elected political party working on our behalf.
So much for transparency!
How very dare they prefer not to make anything public knowledge. Its not up to them is it?
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perhaps all these businessmen and women who want to gain a politicians ear,are trying to sell something very expensive, like a computer system.(for arguments sake).
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You know you are getting close to the truth when they try and stop you filming.
It is nothing other than buying access and companies don’t fork out £800 plus expenses and get nothing in return.
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[...] Crick told a story the Liberal Democrats were desperately trying to suppress: big tobacco has been buying access to party leaders.Amid a series of pathetic excuses, Lib Dem officials tried to claim that the only purpose of their [...]
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[...] Crick told a story the Liberal Democrats were desperately trying to suppress: big tobacco has been buying access to party leaders.Amid a series of pathetic excuses, Lib Dem officials tried to claim that the only purpose of their [...]
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Is there any report anywhere on Channel 4 News archives that actually shows the Party’s record on upholding ordinary peoples’ rights on ordinary issues like the day to day costs of living and accessible by each Parliamentary constituency?
I doubt this very much.
While I am convinced that Michael Crick is seeking to tell the truth about the Lib Dems in this piece, the time has come for him to start to take the journalism to the reality of the day.
And that reality is not about the lobbyists.
That is well known. The reality is the actual street.
The actual housing estate. And the person’s pocket. It is no longer valid to add the Channel 4 News to the list of Party jamboree propaganda.
What the Channel should do is what it does about the annual Christmas Day broadcast by Queen Elizabeth 2. Do an alternative Christmas Day Broadcast. So Channel 4 News should start reporting from various parts of England when the Party jamboree stages the “Party Position event” on any given policy area. Treat that “staging” to a realty-check by broadcasting LIVE on the same subject but from a real life setting. Say the Party Jamboree is uttering a lot of noise about “local democracy” and the “Party achievement” in that front. Why not prepare a factual item or items on that very topic from a really enacted area somewhere with a Lib Dem Party link?
That will be something that Michael Crick will be very good at taking part in doing. Let’s see if he will do so from now on.
This is the way forward for electronic journalism and I think this will be soon appearing on the mainstream channels as well as on the internet.
1428 Hrs GMT London Saturday 22 October 2011
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