Tenants say no to council housing sell-off...

South Kesteven District Council’s plan to sell off its 6,500 homes for a fraction of their value has been rejected by a massive 3-1 vote by its tenants.

The Conservatives who control SKDC now have serious questions to answer about the wisdom and cost of their glossy campaign to offload their housing stock on a newly formed housing association.

Labour and the LibDems were defeated 27-6 when they tried to stop the ballot as a waste of public money by an out of touch council.

But the result of the ballot announced today proves them right.

Three out of four tenants who voted rejected the plan. Turn out was over 75% which indicates an absolute majority of the 6,500 tenants said no thanks.

I’m not an expert in housing matters, and could see arguments on both sides. But I stayed out of the long running debate.

Congratulations to Rob Shorrock and colleagues at SKDC who have clearly won the overwhelming backing of tenants for their campaign to keep the management of local council housing accountable to elected district councillors.

Watch BBC probe into Midlands Industrial Council here...

The Politics Show investigation into the secretive Midlands Industrial Council can now be seen HERE on the BBC website.

Click on the “watch west midlands” box to the right of the photo of Tory MP Julie Kirkbride whose links to MIC are revealed for the first time.

The programme appears to confirm my earlier posts that MIC is a front organisation to allow rich businessmen to secretly donate to the Tory Party.

I’ll be adding the new information revealed by the BBC to my dossier on MIC which I published last month.

Have a look and let me know what you think…

BBC to reveal Tory MP's ties with secretive Midlands Industrial Council

Looks like I’ll have a shedload of new information for my dossier on the secretive Midlands Industrial Council following a BBC investigation to be aired this weekend.

The BBC Politics Show has discovered that a Midlands Tory MP is an “ex-officio” member of the controversial organisation, said to be run from a house in a village near Lincoln.

Ahead of tomorrow’s programme, the BBC website reports that Julie Kirkbride MP has admitted to previously undisclosed links with the controversial Midlands Industrial Council.

There is no published record of Ms Kirkbride's connections to the organisation, even though she has now confirmed she is the "link person" between the MIC and the Conservative party in parliament.

She has apparently confirmed that other MPs have attended meetings - she had been a guest speaker at previous events - but she said that she has neither given nor received any money from the MIC, which is why her involvement is not listed.

MIC's secretary, David Wall told BBC West Midlands:

"If you're asking me would we make public announcements when we have a new member then no we wouldn't,"

The conversation with the Politics Show in the West Midlands took place at the HQ of Coleshill Campaigning Services, a call centre operation based at Coleshill Manor in Warwickshire.

The Coleshill operation targets voters in key marginal constituencies on behalf of the Tories and has received £1.1m from the MIC in the last two years.

The Manor is owned by MIC member Robert Edmiston. But even though this web of business links leads back to the Conservatives at every turn, Mr Wall denies that the MIC has an overt influence in candidate selection for the party.

During the programme Mr Wall confesses there is a Euro-sceptic element to the group and they are not keen on what they call "Brussels bureaucracy." Five of its members also supported the "Vote No" campaign against the European Constitution.

They are also not keen on some of the health and safety laws introduced in recent years. They also want lower taxation and they want the minimum wage set at a level "which the market can afford".

Eight members of the MIC were also signatories to a letter to the Daily Telegraph, from a group called the TaxPayers Alliance, which describes itself as "an independent grassroots campaign for lower taxes".

MP funded by ‘shady’ Midlands Industrial Council leads with his chin…

An MP managed to shoot himself in both feet when he raised questions on donations to political parties in the House of Commons.

Mark Pritchard, Tory member for The Wrekin rose to urge Jack Straw to ensure that any new rules on funding of political parties should apply to trade unions, as well as the private sector.

Jack fired back, accusing Mr Pritchard of “leading with his chin” on the issue, since he benefited from donations from the “shady” Midlands Industrial Council and the Tories were exploiting a loophole.

The exchange prompted Labour MP David Winnick to call for an inquiry into what he called “a sinister organisation”.

Here’s Jack’s reply to Mr Pritchard taken from Hansard:

May I point out to the hon. Gentleman that, as the Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life said in 1998, the trade unions are the most regulated of all donors?

During the 18 years of the Conservative Government, the trade unions suffered one adverse change after another in their financing regimes, while nothing whatever was done in respect of companies.

I am surprised that the hon. Gentleman is leading with his chin on the issue, because there is one unquestionable improvement that we must make in regulation, which is to ensure that the unregulated funding of local parties by unincorporated associations such as the Midlands Industrial Council is brought to an end.

I note that although he spent just £11,000 during the four-week election period in 2005, he received a total of £55,000 in the eight months before the election was called from Lord Leonard Steinberg and the Midlands Industrial Council, and I assume that he spent that, too.

That shows that there is a glaring loophole continuously exploited by the Conservative party, enabling them to spend large sums of money and not account for them before the election period kicks in.

Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North) (Lab):

Does my right hon. Friend agree that there is scope for political parties to spend less before there is any question of further funding, particularly from the state? In addition, is there not a strong case for an immediate inquiry into the midlands industrial council? It is a sinister organisation—it is not accountable in any way, and it makes a mockery of the reforms that the Government have brought about.

Mr. Straw:

I strongly agree with my hon. Friend’s latter comments. I recall that when the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 was considered in the House, there were high-sounding comments from the Opposition, who said that they wished for as much transparency as we and the Liberal Democrats wished for.

Such comments have been repeated, but I note, too, that the Conservative party exploited a loophole in the law that allowed unincorporated associations, such as the Midlands Industrial Council, to give thousands and thousands of pounds to local constituency associations without the latter accounting for that or providing any details about who was behind those shady organisations until it was forced out of them.

For anyone interested, I’ve pulled information on Midlands Industrial Council together into a dossier – and updated it as more comes to light