Venture capitalist, Ronnie “PFI” Cohen, Gordon’s moneybags backer, has a direct debit paying the equivalent of £20,000 a month to the Labour party. Nigel Doughty and Jonathan Aisbitt are another couple of red blooded capitalists happy to chip in a quarter of a million a year to the party formerly known as the worker’s party. Peter Hain said he wanted City slickers to give up their bonuses, but this week he doesn’t mind them giving their bonuses to the Labour party. He who pays the piper calls the tunes.
Last week Hain wanted City slickers to give their bonuses to “charity or invest it in regeneration schemes for unemployed kids”. Now he says “private equity funds provide a very good vehicle for start-ups, for rescue operations and for investment to grow” – which they do – with a tapered relief 10% tax rate on liquidation and tax deductible debt costs to offset against profits. Gordon of course ultimately makes the rules, is he going to side with his millionaire backers, or the workers?
