Here is a fine example of how the ruling political class literally get their snouts in the trough courtesy of suppliers:

First minister Jack McConnell and Danuta Hubner, European commissioner for regional policy, are among the speakers at a two-day Microsoft ‘government leaders forum’ which takes place in the Scottish parliament.

Microsoft, quasi-monopolistic purveyors of over-priced, buggy, sub-standard software have high level sales teams embedded in government, literally using government offices to sell to the government. To make sure that the bosses keep buying Microsoft they schmooze them like mad. They also fund think-tanks to produce reports protecting their monopoly and rubbishing superior open source software. You can be sure that the wine at this “government leaders forum” will have an excellent bouquet discernable to a politician’s snout.