British trade unions don’t like Blairite-Pfizerite Owen Smith

This 15 September 2016 parody music video from Britain is called The Owen Smiths – “How Soon is Mao?”

The song is a parody of British band The Smiths‘ song How Soon Is Now?

It is about British Blairite Labour party leader candidate Owen Smith and his views on elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The lyrics are:

He is the son and heir of Mao
Or Lenin, or Trotsky, or one of that lot
He is the son and heir of some old commie lunatic

You shut your mouth! How can you say
I couldn’t bring down Theresa May?
I’m a radical who has credibility
Which is more than you could say for Jeremy

He is the son and heir of Mao
I bet he reads that little red book at bedtime
His ideology will surely lead to mass genocide

You shut your mouth! How can you say
I couldn’t bring down Theresa May?
I’m a radical who has credibility
Which is more than you could say for Jeremy

There’s a hustings if you’d like to come
I could use someone there to support me
‘Cause at the end they’re let out of their cage
And they all rush the stage
And they get selfies with Jeremy, and I want to cry

By Luke James, parliamentary reporter in Britain:

Smith unable to register a penny of union cash

Wednesday 21st September 2016

OWEN SMITH has not registered a penny of financial support from trade unions for his Labour leadership campaign, the Morning Star can reveal as polls in the contest close today.

Leader Jeremy Corbyn has received more than £138,000 in loans and donations from unions to support his re-election campaign, figures recently published in Parliament’s register of interests show.

But Mr Smith’s challenge has relied on private donors including a PR firm and a businessman who lives in Los Angeles.

The Pontypridd MP’s biggest financial backer is Anthony Watson, the US-based chair of Labour’s business council, who gave £67,550 to cover office costs during the campaign.

Mr Watson has come under fire after it was revealed the financial services company he took over in 2015 was first incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

Mr Smith, a former Pfizer lobbyist, has received staff support worth £9,654.12 from the Quatro PR firm and £6,000 from a coach company in south Wales.

By contrast, Mr Corbyn has been gifted office space worth just under £9,000 by Unite and rail union TSSA.

Unite have also provided £75,000 in loans for an “indefinite period,” while TSSA provided staff support worth a further £7,853.76.

Unite also made two donations of £50,000 each, writing off one of them later.

Non-affiliated transport union RMT donated £25,000 to Mr Corbyn, while the Fire Brigades Union, which reaffiliated in November, gave £15,000.

On top of that, FBU general secretary Matt Wrack gave a further £7,000 from his own pocket to support Mr Corbyn.

Since being elected leader in 2005, Mr Wrack has refused to take wages over the value of the average firefighter’s pay, instead putting the extra cash into a campaign fund.

He told the Star: “I have used this to make donations to strike funds and labour movement campaigns here and around the world.

“Currently the Corbyn campaign is one of the most important facing our movement, offering the chance to significantly take forward the case for working-class policies.

“So I made a donation to support this vital campaign.”

Donations made from September 5 onwards will be revealed in the next edition of the register of interests.