Where does the money come from? Union Modernisation Fund related story.

The Mail reports on Unison's new offices which will apparently cost some £45 million. The Mail are upset that:

'A left-wing union which backed Ed Miliband for the Labour leadership has spent £45 million on luxury new headquarters even though thousands of its low-paid public-sector members face the sack from Government spending cuts.'

The Mail are also irritated that:

'Unison has given more than £18 million to Labour since records of registrable donations began in 2001. It amounts to 13 per cent of the £143 million donated to Labour over the past decade.'

The Mail also report that:

'Last night, Unison said it had borrowed £40 million to fund the new building from its bankers, Unity Trust, but claimed it would repay the loan in three years. The scheme includes 17 social housing units which it has sold for £4.2 million and 30 private flats sold to a landlord for £8 million.

The union refused to divulge the selling price of its current building, which it said was ‘not fit for purpose’. It said the details of the sale were ‘commercially confidential’. The union also refused to say how much its signs cost or to detail the cost of internal fittings.'

What The Mail have not considered is how much public money Unison have received via the Union Modernisation Fund over the last few years. For those of you who do not know the Union Modernisation Fund is a clever way that some of the money that Trade Unions donate to the Labour party are paid back to them from public funds in the name of 'modernisation'. Quite why the public should pay for Trade Unions to modernise when these same Trade Unions can afford to build massive office buildings and who take subscriptions from many people who would rather not be in the union but are too scared not to stay as members, is beyond me.

This Trade Unions Modernisation Fund was a policy that the last Labour government, the Labour party being largely trade union funded, enthusiastically followed. It is a policy that is a waste of public money and should cease immediately however somehow I doubt that David Cameron has the balls for this fight, or indeed many others of any consequence.