Desperate Tories are calling on banks and finance companies to interfere in politics
John Glen: A small man in a big government department.
Many years ago, when This Writer first arrived in Mid Wales, I was told of an old political blackmail that – allegedly – is still used here.
Tory landlords would rent out properties to poor people, often their employees, only on the condition that they voted Conservative at general and local elections.
With that in mind, I must ask: Just what is the Conservative Party’s Economic Secretary to the Treasury suggesting to City business executives?
John Glen (that’s his name, but don’t be too hard on yourself if you never heard of him before) told them the Labour Party was a bigger threat to the economy than Brexit (a lie), saying Labour “would unravel decades of economic progress”.
Economic progress? Average wages are a fraction of what they were 10 years ago and productivity has fallen massively. That is not progress!
Mr Glen said Labour was “a party led by maverick figures” like Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell: “I don’t believe that this is a man ready to occupy 11 Downing Street.”
Others may disagree, considering the lamentable job done by the last two tenants of that particular piece of social housing.
“We must redouble our efforts in office to ensure we are building an inclusive and responsible brand of capitalism,” Mr Glen told financial service bosses, demanding that they do their utmost to stop the Shadow Chancellor from gaining ground in the Square Mile.
Who’s “we” in this scenario? And what will “we” be doing, exactly?
Is this man trying to induce City bosses to interfere in politics by persuading their clients against supporting Labour? If so, what kind of tactics are they likely to employ?
It seems clear the Tories are terrified of Labour’s current charm tactics in the City.
Mr McDonnell and members of his team, including Mr Glen’s opposite number Jonathan Reynolds, have been meeting with banks and businesses, allaying fears created by the Tories’ scaremongering.
But we all know that, when they can’t produce a decent argument, Tories get vicious.
Mr McDonnell has made his opinion of this behaviour clear on Twitter:
This is an extremely dangerous statement to come from a government minister. Urging banks & finance companies to politically interfere in our democratic process smacks of desperation by a Tory party seeking to cling onto office by any means. https://t.co/dpeehYHweW
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) June 13, 2018
What incentives are they offering to get City executives to pit their clients against Labour?
All the Tories can offer are lies and false smear tactics. JC4PM ASAP.
That would be the banks and financial institutions tried to interfere in politics at the behest of Cameron before the referendum. I agree they should not be logging for their own interests.
“Tory landlords would rent out properties to poor people, often their employees, only on the condition that they voted Conservative at general and local elections.”…….. which constitutes electoral fraud.
“We must redouble our efforts in office to ensure we are building an inclusive and responsible brand of capitalism,” Mr Glen told financial service bosses, demanding that they do their utmost to stop the Shadow Chancellor from gaining ground in the Square Mile.”………… Which sounds to me like electoral fraud. They never learn do they? We need to have the Police brought in to investigate this and hopefully result in some more convictions.
The Tories are literally scraping the bottom of a deep, well used cesspit.
Yes, the example I used does constitute electoral fraud. I mentioned this and the people who told me about it just said they did it anyway.
Agree with you on the other two points.
Mike, Just Giving is not letting me contribute to your case as they are unable to let me reset my password. Any other way?
Not as far as I know. Have you contacted the site?
Coupla points… John Glen is my MP – he (obviously) hasn’t helped with my bedroom tax but he DID help me when I had trouble trying to get permission to tape record my PIP Work Capability Assessment. He has a reputation for working hard in helping his constituents, but has a background in oil and gas and the ubiquitous bean counters. YMMV. He may be a ‘small man’ now but I think he’s a man to watch, carefully.