Oops

Take a look at this from Dizzy Thinks. "This morning's Times carries a rather worrying report about how the Labour Party appears to have conspired with the mobile phone operators in the UK over roaming charges. Purely as an aside and point of interest, Gordon Brown's PPS, Iain Austin MP, sponsors a Commons "secretary/researcher pass" for an employee from Orange."
It would appear that Mike Harris, for that is the researcher's name, no longer works for Ian Austin, he says that "...you'll see this the next time the Declaration of Members' Interests is published."

Doesn't stop this being a very interesting story, does it?

The Times article includes the information (my emphasis) that "Labour conspired with mobile-phone companies to let them impose high bills on consumers for international calls, according to documents obtained by The Times. Frank messages involving civil servants and a minister detail how Britain led a dogged campaign to prevent Europe imposing swingeing cuts in “roaming” charges. At one point, when negotiations suggested that the EU would impose a tough line on the companies, a civil servant e-mailed Vodafone to say: “UK still not happy bunnies.” Consumer experts were appalled by the disclosures, under the Freedom of Information Act, which show that the Government and phone businesses acted in concert to fight compulsory price cuts...The documents show that Britain’s lead negotiator regularly e-mailed major mobile companies. At an early stage, he told BT: “Fight goes on.” He warned Vodafone about an initiative by a senior European official, adding: “I assume we want to avoid at all costs!”"
We, we, we, is that we the general public, we the users of Vodafone, we the Labour party, we the Government, we the friends of the UK mobile telcos or we the people with our snouts in the trough?

More from the Times article "Industry experts privately believe that Labour owed the operators a favour. Gordon Brown’s economic success relied heavily on an auction of 3G mobile phone licences in 2000 that raised £22 billion. He used the windfall to reduce debt and help to borrow for public spending while operators have struggled to recoup their investments."
Nice... "Whiter than white" I think not.