Ed Miliband's big 'but'

The BBC report the news that:

'Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for a £5,000 cap on donations to political parties, including those from trade unions.

He told the BBC this would remove the influence of "big money" on politics.

But Mr Miliband also said he wanted to keep the system under which union members are asked whether they want to keep paying £3 a year to Labour - around three million currently do so.'

The BBC find the space to tell us that around three million trade union members pay £3 a year to the Labour party but only allow Conservative ministers to say or claim that figure that would be affected by Ed Miliband's £5,000 cap would be much smaller. In fact, in a non-election year, the cap would restrict donations from the Labour party hardly at all. In November the Labour party proudly reported the latest figures from the Electoral Commission thus:

'Labour’s members are our biggest donors'

Income from Labour Party membership fees:

2008: £5.9m
2009: £6.1m
2010: £7.3m
2011 (projected): £7.6m

Income from affiliation fees:

The affiliation fees the Labour Party receives is £7.6m annually.

In addition to affiliation fees, trade unions sometimes choose to make some additional donations to support the Labour Party, particularly at General Elections.

2008: £0.2m
2009: £0.6m
2010: £3.9m
2011: £0.1m'

So on the Labour party's own figures, the percentage of income from Trade Unions and other affiliation fees only that Ed Miliband has offered to forgo would have been in recent years:

2008: 0.15% (normal year)
2009: 4.2% (pre-election year)
2010: 20.7% (election year)
2011: 0.6% (normal year)

So once again we see the BBC promoting an idea from the Labour party as fair and equatable, only reporting Conservative claims as to is irrelevance and ignoring the Labour party's own figures that prove the Conservative party's case. The way that the BBC act as the propaganda arm of the Labour party is clear and disgusting and I cannot believe that David Cameron and his fellow wets at the top of the Conservative party cannot see this and why they continually fail to act upon it.