Vote Big Business, Vote Labour PDF Print E-mail
Election Spin Blog
Spinwatch readers wishing to cast their votes to the best advantage of Big Business may be feeling confused about who to vote for on Thursday. Worry not, Spinwatch presents a guide to the party most favoured by Transnational Corporations.

As the Observer Business Editor put it: ''our advice to business leaders is seek a Labour victory, but with this caveat: blair should go as soon as possible and Brown become Prime Minister, installing Ed Balls as his successor in number 11. Better the devils you know.'[1] PR companies working for US Transnational Corporations are offering similar wisdom. The glossy brochure given out to Fleishman Hillard clients on the 'Brown agenda' has a slightly different prediction suggesting that Aladair Darling will become chancellor after Brown, only to be followd by Ed Balls. [2]

The guide illustrates the sanguine apporach to New Labour amongst the Trans National corporate class. for further evidence we can point to the support ggiven to Labour by the Sun. Its proporietor Rupert Murdoh only backs parties willing to do his bidding. More extensive, if less impressive, is the list of 63 business leaders who wrote to the Financial times to back Labour. They stated:

We back the Government’s investment in science, innovation, skills and business support and we support the continued commitment to cut excessive regulation and in maintaining a competitive position on overall corporate taxation.

The future economic success of the country does not lie in plans to cut £35billion in public spending, which would be damaging to the skills, science and business support agenda.

Business has always desired one thing above all others - a stable economic climate in which to operate. In Government, Labour has delivered such an environment. Now is not the time to put such hard won stability at risk. [3]

Looking through the list one is struck by the lack of intervention by the biggest Companies in the UK, like BP. Often known as Blair Petroleum, their support of the Blair government is assured by rather more direct contacts in the form of the revolving door and day to day lobby contact. But the most interesting thing about the list is its contrast with the supporters of the Conservative Party who wrote to the FT a couple of days later [4]. Their list of 67 signatories included predominantly small or nationally oriented businesses, plus a few Tory ideologues, no longer in the first rank of business like Sir Christopher Gent now only non-exec at GSK. This poor showing by the Tories indicates clearly that they are no longer the favoured party of Transnational Capital. Indeed some commentators have gone so far as to suggest that the Tory policy on immigration, - depriving business of cheap and plentiful foreign workers - makes them 'anti-capitalist'. Nick Cohen argued that:

I never thought I'd live to see the day when Rupert Murdoch would order the Sun to attack the leader of the Conservative party for being too right wing on immigration, but it came last week. In the unlikely event that he becomes Prime Minister, Howard will be told in no uncertain terms by Murdoch and the Confederation of British Industry that he must drop his anti-capitalist election promises and I don't believe he will argue back. [5] The final indication of the feeling of the Trans National elite that runs the world economy, was the intervention of Trevor Manuel, the South African finance Minister who said it would be a 'calamity' if Labour lost. Manuel told the Guardian that "It would be a calamity if we had to start afresh at this point. If we want to maintain the impetus on Africa we need firm and experienced hands on the tiller." [6] Manuel, as a representative of the South African governmebnt has high credibility in UK public debate which still associates South Africa with Mandela and resistance to Apartheid. In fact, Manuel, who sat on Blair's neoliberal Africa Commission, is a member of the neoliberal global elite, sitting on both IMF and World Bank committees. As leading South African Activits Trevor Ngwane put it:

 

people should know Manuel’s record before taking him too seriously. He was a top board member at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, where he enthusiastically pushed the neo-liberal polices that are the very basis of Third World poverty. In South Africa he has presided over one million job losses, privatisation and a harsh austerity programme, which has reversed many of the promises made when apartheid ended. He is trying to balance his desire to impose policies that please the bankers and multinationals with the fear that these measures are so destructive they will lead to rebellion and riots.It tells us a lot about the Labour Party that the backing it is getting is from the most pro-business, most pro-privatisation forces in Africa. [7]

So if you want to vote for the favoured candidate of big business, you should vote Labour.

Notes

1.Frank Kane, 'Comment: Trouble Ahead - so business needs Balls', Observer, 1 May 2005
2.Kevin Maguire 'Election spin: The Insider' New Statesman, Monday 18th April 2005.
3.Here is the list of signatories in full for those without a subscription to the Financial Times website (the names were not prnted in the paper version of the paper). We rescued the names from Google's Cache

Charles Allen – Chief Executive, ITV plc

Nighat Awan OBE – Chief Executive, Shere Khan Group

Trevor Beattie – Advertising Creative Director, TBWA/London

Graham Benson – Chairman, Blue Heaven Productions Ltd

Danny Bernstein – Vice-Chair, Labour Finance and Industry Group

Sir Clive Bourne – Chairman, Seabourne Group plc

John Boyle OBE – Chairman, Hamilton Portfolio Ltd

Dr Jonathan Charkham CBE – Director, Mizuho International plc

Alex Cheatle - Chief Executive Officer, Ten Lifestyle Management Ltd

John Clarke – Group Chairman, ALHCO Ltd

Keith Clarke – Chief Executive, W S Atkins plc

Dr David Cleevely – Chairman, Cambridge Enterprise Conference

Peter Coates – Chairman, A B M Catering Ltd

Sir Ronald Cohen – Executive Chairman, Apax Partners Worldwide LLP

D A Couper – Managing Director, Couper Seafoods Ltd

Bob Coxon – Chairman, Scott Bader

Nigel Doughty – Chief Executive, Doughty Hanson Company

Charles Dunstone

Professor Sir Chris Evans OBE – Chairman, Merlin Biosciences

Ken Gilkes – Executive Chairman, Stort Chemicals Ltd

Bill Gleave MBE – Chairman, BGH Ltd

Richard Gooding, Managing Director, City Airport

Ted Hanley – Managing Director, Aagaard Hanley Ltd

Dr Peter Harper – Retired Director, Hanson plc, Lonmin plc, John Laing plc

Lord Chris Haskins of Skidby

Sir Peter Heap KCMG – Chairman, Labour Finance and Industry Group

Lord Clive Hollick of Notting Hill – Director, United Business Media plc

Dr Jonny Hon – Chairman, Global Group (Europe) plc

Graham Jones OBE – European Patent Attorney, Graham Jones Company

George Kessler CBE – Group Deputy Chairman, Kesslers International Ltd

Denise Kingsmill CBE

Lord Sandy Leitch of Oakley

Sonny Leong – Executive Chairman, Cavendish Publishing Ltd

Martin Littler – Managing Director, Inclusive Technology Ltd

Kevin McGrath – Partner, Reit Asset Management

Martin McTague – Managing Director, eGasStation Europe Ltd

Michelle Mone – Founder and Co-Owner, MJM International

Hugh Morgan-Williams – Chairman, Canford Group plc

John Napier – Chairman, Kelda plc

Anthony Nelson – Chairman, Gateway to London

Eric Nicoli – Chairman, EMI plc

Sir Gulam Noon MBE – Chairman, Noon Group

Mayank B Patel – Chairman and Chief Executive, Currencies Direct Ltd

Nilesh Patel – Managing Director, Shakti Pappadum

Lord Paul of Marylebone – Chairman, Caparo Group

Rouzbeh Pirouz – Senior Partner, Pelican Partners

David Richards OBE – Chairman, Prodrive Ltd

Sir Gerry Robinson – Chairman, Allied Domecq plc

Bryan K Sanderson CBE – Chairman, Standard Chartered Bank

Israr Sarwar – Operations Director, Searchers.com

Bharat Shah – Chairman/Managing Director, Sigma Pharmaceuticals plc

Khalid Sharif – Managing Director, Ummah Foods

Sylvia Sheridan OBE – Executive Chairman, IMS Group plc

Ian R Smith – Chief Executive, General Healthcare Group

Stef Stefanou – Chairman, John Doyle Group

Sir Alan Sugar – Chairman, Amstrad plc

Vin Sumner – Managing Director, Clicks and Links Ltd

Derek Tullett CBE

Chris van der Kuyl – Chairman, 4J Studios

Moni Varma – Chairman, Veetee Rice Group

Simon Woodroffe – Founder of Yo! Sushi and Yo! Company

Chris Wright – Chairman, Chrysalis Group plc

Michael Ziff – Chairman and Chief Executive, Stylo plc

The above reflects our personal views and not necessarily those of the companies of which we are executives.

4. 'Tories have most specific plans to reduce the red tape burden', Financial Times 27 April, 2005: 16.
5. 'Howard's one-way street' Nick Cohen The Observer Sunday April 24, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1469194,00.html
6. 'Labour defeat would hit poor - African minister' Larry Elliott, economics editor, The Guardian, Saturday April 23, 2005 http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1468410,00.html
7. 'South African activist rejects Blair’s neo-liberal agenda for Africa' Socialist Worker, 30 April 2005 | issue 1949 http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6364
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