Bristol Labour's funny money

by The Bristol Blogger - The Bristol Blogger Tue Dec 04, 2007 21:17 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

It gets murkier and murkier with regards to whatever ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ is and their generous £10k cash donation to the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party.

It’s almost seems as if there’s two Bristol Labour Groups operating at the Council House. On the one hand we have one organisation - ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ - which has an office, called either the ‘Labour Members Services Office’ according to the council’s website or the ‘Labour Group Office’ (pdf) according to the council’s weekly Members’ Information Service newsletter.

And working in this office are at least two council officers who are employed, not by the Labour Party but by us, the council tax payer. One is called Roger Livingstone, although we’re still tracking down his precise job title. The other is Laura Protheroe, known as the Labour Group Members’ Support Officer. She, rather conveniently (although this might become rather inconvenient), is the partner of Labour Councillor, Fabian Breckels.

The purpose of this office and the staff is to provide support services to Labour councillors on Bristol City Council - who are apparently known as ‘the Bristol Labour Group’. However, legally, this office and its staff can only work on council business. The staff and the facilities provided by the taxpayer should not be used for either private purposes or for working on party political or campaigning activity, such as say, fundraising and party donations.

Obviously then this office and its staff, despite sharing a name and address, can’t have anything to do with ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ that gave a cash donation to the Bristol North West Constituency Party can it? Because that would mean that council officers and council facilities would have been used for party political activities and party fundraising matters.

Is there another ‘Bristol Labour Group’ then? Another one specifically for party political purposes and fundraising rather than council administrative purposes? Or are cash donations to the Labour Party being channeled through a council office at the Council House with the help of our entirely disinterested city council officers?

You also have to wonder how this £10,000 cash donation is being accounted for and by who? The paper trail so far leads directly to a publicly owned office staffed by public servants.

Who exactly was responsible for the fundraising and the consequent donation and who is keeping the records of it all and where on earth are they? Let’s hope it’s nothing to do with the ‘Labour Members Services Office’/'Labour Group Office’ or its staff because that’d be against the law.

But if they’re not in any way responsible then who is? All we know at present is that it’s a group working out the same office with exactly the same name and exactly the same address. How very odd.

And remember we’ve got nowhere near finding out where this cash came from yet!!!

Further info’: The Blogger’s research team has contacted the ‘Labour Members Services Office’/'Labour Group Office’ requesting their membership list, accounts and governing documents in order to help clear up any confusion here.

They have also contacted the City’s legal officer regarding placing a complaint about Labour Party members' registered interests.

A further complaint will be made regarding possible maladministration by council officers apparently engaging in party political activity and allowing our public facilities and address to be used for party political purposes.

A freedom of information request will also be made to obtain any membership lists, accounts and governing documents with regard to ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ that might be on the council’s premises, held by the city council or its officers.

http://thebristolblogger.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/labour-funding-do-we-have-two-associations-with-one-member-in-the-same-office/

by Anarchist606 Wed Dec 05, 2007 15:40

Excellent work; for my money the Bristol Blogger is THE Bristol Blog!

by The Bristol Blogger Thu Dec 06, 2007 08:46 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

Gotcha! Yesterday we mentioned a city council officer - Roger Livingston - who works for ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ in an office at the Council House where tens of thousands of pounds worth of apparently anonymous donations to the Labour Party are being administrated.

Today we can reveal that the official job title of this local government officer - whose wages are paid by you dear reader - is the rather prosaic sounding ‘Political Assistant’. And there’s absolutely no surprise that he’s working for ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ as he’s proved himself to be a completely useless little retard who would fit in only too well.

Indeed such is the level of Roger’s incompetence that an email meant for his boss, Mark Bradshaw - fully and frankly discussing a member of the public who had the temerity to write a scrupulously polite letter to Bradshaw on the seemingly innocuous matter of his thoughts on plane flights - was sent instead to the member of the public in question! Oh dear.

And what a revelation it is! Despite clear rules forbidding Roger, as a council officer, from engaging in any party political activity whatsoever, it appears that part of his job is to make, er… Party political enquiries regarding members of the public that contact Bristol Labour councillors!

Specifically, if a member of the public contacts their Labour councillor, Roger will be tasked with snooping into their background to find out what their political affiliation might be. All at the council tax payers’ expense of course.

In the case of this particular correspondent we learn that Roger “Can’t quite link her direct(sic) to the Greens,” before telling Bradshaw - entirely non party politically you understand - “but [we] need to be on the safe side.”

The use of the “we” pronoun is an especially nice touch from this non-party political council officer don’t you think? Is he suggesting that the whole of Bristol City Council needs to be “on the safe side” where people with Green leaning beliefs are concerned? I think we should be told.

But not only is Roger selflessly watching out for those evil Greens on our behalf, he also has a frankly hilarious line in fruitbat scientific theories he shares with Bradshaw (and us). “I think it’s got more to do with the sun,” he sagely writes of global warming.

Of course Roger. Global warming’s caused by the sun, the moon’s made of cheese and you have nothing whatsoever to do with the tens of thousands of pounds worth of anonymous donations to the Labour Party registered from your office.

Surely enough is enough? Whoever’s in charge down at the Council House ought to be kicking this party politician-on-the-rates out of our local authority by his completely unprofessional partisan arse right now.

Here’s Roger’s unfortunate email exchange in full:

> >>> “Xxxx Xxxxxx” < Memberofthepublic@…>

> 22/09/07 13:14 >>>
>
>
> This message was also sent to: Cllr Mark Bradshaw
>
>
> Xxxx Xxxxxx
> xx Xxxx Xx

> Bedminster
> Bristol
> BSX XXX
>
> Email: Memberofthepublic@…
>
> Saturday 22 September 2007
>
> Dear Mark and Colin
>
> When I think of how cheap it is to fly these days, I feel concerned about the environmental impact of flying. Would you be willing to let me know what your thinking and strategies are around reducing the environmental impact of flying and to let me know what steps, if any, you are taking to encourage cleaner aircraft and to increase the tax or tax emissions on all flights.
>
> Thank you for your attention.
>
> Xxxx Xxxxxx >

> Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:20:58 +0100
> From: roger.livingston@…
> To: Member of the public@…
> Subject: Re: Letter from your constituent Xxxx Xxxxx

>
> If you bGoogle “Xxxx Xxxxxx” with the quotes she appears to have signed every green petition going. Can’t quite link her direct to the Greens. But need to be on the safe side.
>
> Happy to draft a reply. (My own view is that I don’t believe man has caused global warming - I think it’s got more to do with the sun. And I’m still not convinced ANYTHING we do will make a difference. Al;so am anxious that this huge diversion of cash towards anti-global warming measures might have been better spent on the poor - who are still right on our doorstep.) However….. will draft reply.
>
> Could do with with the PLP briefing on global warming - could you send it to me?
>
> Roger
>
> Roger Livingston
> Political Assistant,
> Bristol City Council
> 0117 922 2013
> 07957 474865
>

http://thebristolblogger.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/roger-and-them/

by antichrist757 Thu Dec 06, 2007 09:44

Everybody knows politix is a dirty bizness and that political type people are not to be trusted, thats why in a country like this so many people do not vote.
The majority of folk are somewhere between apathetic and indifferent to all things political because they know the political system and the people in it are not worthy of trust or respect.
We know all this shit, its blatantly apparent to anyone with an IQ in positive numbers.
Why does the BB and others insist on boring everybody silly with what they already know?
Why not report on something seriously news, something that preferably unites the readers into some kind of 'potential' which brings about positive change?
This is not news, this is just the usual dregs of common knowledge / boring / mediocre / tittle-tattle which serves no useful purpose other than to boost the ego and street cred of a tiny, insignificant group of dissafected types.
There is nuffin wrong with being dis-affected mind, the condition is essential for progress, but dont confuse being critical of the stink which emanates from the rear-end of the beast, with doing what is needed, concentrate on the head of the beast, not its arse-hole!
Do that and you might actually make a difference one day!

by Jayne Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:31

This is important information for local democracy, so thank you Bristol Blogger and keep digging.

by Truth Seeker Thu Dec 06, 2007 21:06

Isnt this the same Labour office that got caught printing election leaflets with council gear last year? Presumably this guy was working there then too?

by The Bristol Blogger Fri Dec 07, 2007 08:16 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

Another day, another ‘Bristol Labour Group’ donation mystery . . .

But first a quick recap: What we have is cash donations amounting to exactly £10k, made in two large tranches, from an unincorporated association - ‘the Bristol Labour Group’, which only has one declared member and is based in a public office, staffed by Local Government Officers at the Council House - to the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party.

Now The Blogger finds after a careful search of the Electoral Commission’s register of donors that the only donations that have ever been made to any local Bristol Constituency Labour Party - or the national Labour Party - by ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ were these two donations made to Bristol North West this year in February and June.

These donations therefore appear to represent a rather new and novel method for members of ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ to donate money to their party.

It’s perhaps notable too that no similar donations have been made to the other Constituency Labour Parties in Bristol - West, East and South - by ‘the Bristol Labour Group’.

What’s so special about Bristol North West? What’s it done to deserve this extraordinarily generous and entirely original donation from ‘the Bristol Labour Group’?

A question you could ask is: what was the money for? The dates of the donations perhaps offer a clue. £4.5k was donated on the February 9 2007 and the other on June 30 2007. This places the donations either side of the local elections on May 3 2007.

Perhaps, then, the Bristol Labour Group was putting up money to fund their local election campaigns in the wards of the Bristol North West Constituency?

Afraid not. No wards in the Bristol North West Constituency were up for election this year. This makes the donations even more unusual. Wouldn’t this large sum of money have been more useful in, say, Bristol South or Bristol East where there were some tough election battles to fight?

So why the hell would ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ donate a huge sum of money to a constituency party that didn’t really need it on either side of a local election campaign involving their own wards and candidates that would have undoubtedly benefited from it?

Well. There was one election going on in Bristol North West this year. Or rather a selection. A new parliamentary candidate was needed by the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party to replace their retiring MP, Doug Naysmith.

The candidates list, consisting of local former Filwood councillor Kelvin Blake, London barrister and Lambeth councillor Sam Townend and a couple of deadbeats, was finally drawn up on the 7 May 2007, after the first generous donation from ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ had been banked.

The winner of the contest, Sam Townend, was then selected by the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate on June 25 2007. A further donation was then accepted by Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party from ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ on 30 June 2007.

Here’s what some local Labour members and activists had to say about Townend’s selection:

“Sam Townend is a bizarre choice. Kelvin Blake had strong local credentials, a compelling personal story of triumph over adversity, is a good campaigner and had the extremely vocal backing of the Bristol Evening Post. Looking from the outside, I cannot conceive of why they didn’t chose him.”

“Labour have now left Paul Harrod (for the Lib Dems) free to play the local choice card and lost the opportunity to play the “parachute” card against Charlotte Leslie. They have antagonised the Evening Post and lost a chunk of activists over it. Was this a trade union led decision? Just seems very strange.”

“There is no evidence of Townend having much campaign know-how from his poor result in Reigate last time. He got a large swing against the Lib Dems in Lambeth in the locals but that was a borough wide swing against the administration and a particular ward “issue” (some have said there was an aggressively homophobic campaign against the Lib Dem incumbant but I do not have the local knowledge to verify this).”

From UK Polling Report

“The Labour party has made a right pigs ear of this selection, bringing in a London cllr & barrister (with what looks to be a deal of baggage) over a local ex-cllr, Kelvin Blake. This was always going to be a close one. Tory gain, unfortunately.”

From Vote-2007.co.uk

I suppose this is what you get from a constituency party that has Derek Pickup in it.

More soon . . .

by Crash Fri Dec 07, 2007 17:00

"The majority of folk are somewhere between apathetic and indifferent to all things political..."

Perhaps you mean the majority of your mates down the pub or wherever.

It is obvious that the majority of people do not have total cynicism of the major parties, else why would thousands of people in Bristol vote for them?

I am frankly extremely tired of 'advice' through this channel about what constitutes 'proper' activism and the constant urging of others to do things which could easily be done if the critics just left their computers switched off and did something more useful instead.

Remember the 'consuming activism' thread?
http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=26979&search_text=consuming%20activism&search_comments=onArray&sc=1

by The Bristol Blogger Sat Dec 08, 2007 23:09

A friend of The Blogger’s with a good head for figures has produced a very handy spreadsheet listing every donation handed to the Labour Party by a local ‘Labour Group’ since records started in 2001.

‘Labour Groups’ are the ones that organise themselves, often inside our town halls, as highly secretive and unaccountable unincorporated associations for fundraising and donation purposes. And very interesting information this spreadsheet yields too.

We’ve not had time to go into it in too much detail yet. But the spreadsheet indeed confirms that the two donations made this year from ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ to the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party are the only ones to have ever been made by them using this secretive and underhand method ideal for anonymity and total non-accountability.

Moreover - to give you some sense of proportion here - The Blogger can confirm that their donation - £10k in total - is the largest gift from one of these unincorporated Labour Groups to a Labour Constituency Party to have been made this year.

We can also confirm that Labour’s national network of unincorporated associations - working for the grassroots of a party that promised to clean up sleaze in politics and be “whiter than white” - have between them donated almost £1m since 2001 to the Labour Party.

And because this vast amount of cash has been funneled into the Labour Party through these secretive and unaccountable devices that do not have to keep public accounts or financial records of any kind, this means there’s no way of knowing where any of this money really originated.

This seems extraordinary. A group of people responsible for high-finance, high-stakes stuff like granting planning permission, handling waste, procuring major capital projects, awarding multi-million pound contracts to private sector firms and handing political power at both local and national levels to their associates appears to have been provided with an entirely anonymous, secretive and unaccountable conduit for laundering funds into their political party. You couldn’t make it up could you?

The Labour Party, however, while brazenly running these funny money associations for itself, has been getting its knickers in a twist over certain other unincorporated associations recently. Between April 16, 2003, and March 14, 2006, the Conservative Party received 52 donations from the Midlands Industrial Council (MIC), an unincorporated association, totalling £968,690 - a little less than the Labour Party has raised through its network of town hall ‘Labour Groups’.

Hazel Blears, when she was the Labour Party chairman, even slammed the MIC as an example of Tory ‘’secrecy” on funding. She’s also described the MIC as a “shadowy” organisation about which little is known and has said:

“If David Cameron continues to remain secretive about such an important source of funding for the Conservative Party then the Electoral Commission should consider the use of its supervisory powers to investigate the Midlands Industrial Council and its donations to the Conservatives.”

Indeed they should and while they’re at it perhaps the Electoral Commission should consider the use of its supervisory powers to investigate this sleazy and unaccountable network of ‘Labour Groups’ - many seemingly operating with impunity from inside our town halls where their hands are actually on the levers of power - and their generous, inexplicable and apparently unaffordable gifts to the Labour Party.

http://thebristolblogger.wordpress.com/

by The Bristol Blogger Mon Dec 10, 2007 08:15

An unincorporated association listed by the Electoral Commission as ‘The Bristol Labour Group’, The Council House, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR has donated £10,000 in cash to the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party. So what?

Q. What’s an unincorporated association?

A. The law relating to unincorporated associations is not fully settled and it is complex. A popular definition is:

“An association of two or more people who have come together to achieve a common purpose, set out in a constitution.”

However unincorporated associations are not required to register with or be regulated by either Companies House, the Financial Services Authority or the Charity Commission. They are not therefore publicly accountable bodies. Neither is there any clear legal requirement for an unincorporated association to have a formal written constitution or set of rules.

This effectively means ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ can operate with no apparent officials, directors, trustees, employees or any other accountable person. It also does not have to keep or reveal public accounts or financial information. They do not even have to reveal their membership. This allows them an extremely high degree of secrecy in their business dealings.

Traditionally unincorporated associations have been used by organisations whose administration is very, very simple and uncontroversial, such as local and community organisations running things like village halls, parent teacher associations or OAP lunch clubs.

However unincorporated associations have grown in popularity in recent years as vehicles for making donations to political parties. This is because the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) allows unincorporated associations as “permissable donors” to political parties.

One potential downside to an unincorporated association is that it has no separate legal identity. This means that every member carries the risk of personal liability (including criminal liability). For tax purposes an incorporated association is treated as a company and is therefore liable to corporation tax.

Q. So it’s not illegal to donate money to political parties through unincorporated associations then?

No it’s not. Although an opinion is forming that they provide a loophole in the law that can be exploited to make anonymous donations to political parties.

Q. So could an unincorporated association like ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ be used to disguise large donations from individuals who wish to remain anonymous?

A. Yes they could. The Electoral Commission has even informally confirmed to The Blogger that unincorporated associations could be abused in this way although it is difficult to prove.

Q. What’s suspicious about this £10k donation from ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ then?

A. For starters £10k is a lot of money to raise from a quick whip round of Labour’s councillors for a one-0ff donation to a local constituency party. Also ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ has never donated money to the Labour Party in this way before.

It seems strange too that the money has been donated either side of a local election campaign when you might have thought funds were needed for this. And why would councillors from Bristol South, Bristol East and Bristol West choose to donate their money to Bristol North West?

Finally it’s notable that ‘The Bristol Labour Group’s’ donation to Bristol North West is the largest donation from any local authority Labour Group made to a constituency party this year.

Q. Yes but don’t Labour councillors have to donate a certain amount of their expenses to the Labour Party?

A. Some local authority Labour Groups require this and it is a possibility that the £10k was raised in this way from Bristol’s Labour councillors. But ordinarily councillors would donate their money direct to Labour Party HQ openly and transparently.

This would also be the first time Bristol Labour councillors have donated “blind” to the Labour Party. Why would they all change to an unaccountable and secretive method? (Especially after making such a fuss when they took power in May of running a more “open and transparent” council) And why would councillors from other constituencies donate their money to the Bristol North West constituency?

Q. Surely £10k isn’t that much money to donate in a year is it?

A. For a small, middle class group of 23 full-time politicians, part-time public/charity sector workers and retired people, it’s quite a lot of money to raise. Especially as the group would also have had to find the money to fund 24 local election campaigns as well this year.

Q. Why don’t our Labour councillors just tell us where the money came from?

A. Normally you would expect politicians to make a political judgement based on minimising damage to themselves. They should consider whether it’s more damaging to reveal where the money came from and what’s really going on than it is to allow endless rumour and speculation to swirl around them.

It would therefore seem ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ believe that damaging rumours and speculation about their party funding arrangements are preferable to the truth about them.

There is a caveat to that however. It should be remembered that the Bristol Labour Party has run the city for most of the last 30 years. This has engendered in the party a complete arrogance, egotism and stupidity. So it’s just as likely that the Bristol Labour Party doesn’t know how to make political judgements any more and simply sees itself as above having to answer for its behaviour.

Q. Have any other parties in Bristol donated money in this way?

Yes, two other unincorporated associations - ‘the Liberal Democrat Group’ and the ‘Horfield & Bishopston Unionist’ (sic) - have donated money in this way, albeit less significant amounts.

Many questions being asked of the Labour Party should therefore also be asked of the Lib Dems and Tories. This may explain why the opposition to Labour in Bristol is not interested in taking up party funding issues with them.

Q. How can we find out where the money Labour donated came from?

A. With a lot of difficulty. However, The Blogger’s research team, having made a number of initial enquiries last week, is hoping to approach Bristol Labour councillors later this week. Remember, though, that our resources are limited, so this may take longer.

Q. If it turns out that the donation was legitimate have Labour done anything wrong?

Regardless of the origin of the donation, all members of ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ have failed to register an interest in the Register of Members’ Interests at the Council House. They may have also used city council facilities and political staff for party political, fundraising and donation purposes. This is technically illegal. And, depending on the origin of the cash, there may be issues for them with the Inland Revenue.

Got any questions about ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ and their donations? Ask and we’ll try and answer!

by The Bristol Blogger - The Bristol Blogger Thu Dec 20, 2007 22:31 bristol_citizens at yahoo dot co dot uk

Bit technical this one I’m afraid but it’s probably worth hearing.

To recap:

A £10k cash donation to the Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party has been recorded by the Electoral Commission as coming from an unincorporated association using the name ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ and using a Council House office address where local government officers - not Labour Party workers - paid from the public purse are based. This £10k in cash is the largest donation to any Constituency Labour Party anywhere made this year.

The Blogger has received legal advice on this matter and here’s some of what it says:

“[The donation to] which you refer relates to the Bristol Labour Group and is a matter for the Electoral Commission. The Bristol Labour Group might (or might not - I do not know) share the same members as the Labour Group of Bristol City Council but it is a completely different entity which may well have a constitution and political purposes etc.”

What this means is that ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ that donated the £10k cannot be the same ‘Bristol Labour Group’ made up of Labour councillors on Bristol City Council. As The Blogger speculated some time ago, it appears - legally - that there are indeed two ‘Bristol Labour Groups’ operating within the Council House. Both apparently operating from the same office staffed by publicly funded local government officers.

One ‘Bristol Labour Group’ is perfectly legitimate and is regulated by the Government and Housing Act 1989 and Local Government (Committees and Political Groups Regulations) 1990. This group, once it has issued a political group notice to the council listing its members is perfectly entitled to local government officer support and office space etc.

The members of this group would also not be required to declare their membership of this group in the Register of Members’ Interests as their formal political group notice would cover this.

However, our legal advice also tells us:

“Each group within the council is supported by a group office which provides clerical support etc. The group offices do not work as political sites but as support sites - there should be no “political propaganda on the rates”.

Clearly work such as fundraising and donations for the Labour Party is political work rather than support work. This means any work on fundraising and donations is (a) not work being conducted by the ‘Bristol Labour Group’ as constituted by the political group notice to Bristol City Council and (b) it is not work that should be being conducted by the publicly funded Labour Group Office at the Council House.

This has a number of repercussions:

- as clearly set out in Bristol City Council’s Code of Conduct for Members (pdf), any Labour councillor who is also a member of ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ that is involved in fundraising and donations to the Labour Party needs to declare this in the Register of Members’ Interests. At present no Bristol City Council member has.

- the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 governs the conduct of local government officers acting as political assistants to councillors and the council’s Protocol on the provision of support to Councillors by Members Services staff (pdf) provides further guidance. The use of local government officers, resources, equipment and property for party political fundraising and donations is clearly proscribed in both documents. At present it appears that Labour Party councillors and their political support staff have breached these guidelines.

In view of this The Blogger understands that in the new year complaints will be made to the Standards Board for England regarding the failure of all Bristol City Council’s Labour councillors to register a pecuniary interest in ‘the Bristol Labour Group’ that has donated money to the Labour Party and to Bristol City Council for breaches of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and their protocol on support to councillors.

A report will also be lodged with the Electoral Commission and all Labour councillors will be approached in order that they can explain which ‘Bristol Labour Group’ they understand themselves to be a member of.

Should be an interesting new year …

http://thebristolblogger.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/rotten-borough-the-legal-stuff/