Unions break bread with the enemy

WHILE the Labour Party plunges ever deeper into the red, its reluctant paymasters, the union barons, are happily adding to their fortunes by milking their one-time enemies in the corporate sector.

Congress House, the TUC’s London headquarters which for decades was where i ndustrial militancy was plotted over latenight beer and sandwiches, is being hawked around as a venue for big business shindigs.

The building where Comrades Arthur Scargill, Jack Jones and Jimmy Knapp once conspired to sabotage the British economy has been quietly renamed Envision — The Congress Centre after a £4.2 million refit.

A glossy promotional brochure offers corporate clients a superior venue f or ‘ product l aunches, f ashion shows, film premiere parties and fine dining’.

A banqueting menu is available from £55-a-head which includes bourgeois starters such as chicken liver parfait flavoured with brandy served with gooseberry chutney and rosemary and raisin bread.

Or you could choose asparagus, shaved fennel and spinach salad with toasted pine nuts. The gourmet main courses include Suffolk chicken stuffed with apricots and ginger, served with a lime jus and fondant potato. There’s also a fine dining menu that’s only available ‘on application’.

Satisfied corporate clients in the last year have included Coca-Cola Enterprises, the private Harley Medical Group, and Savills Commercial — the leading firm of commercial estate agents.

How the horny-handed forebears of today’s TUC leadership would be shocked by the way they are supping with the enemy.

LABOUR’S response to the loss of millions of pounds worth of f unds f r om t he unions will, undoubtedly, be just the same as t hat of t he Gordon Brown government to the country’s financial problems: borrow huge sums which they know they cannot ever repay.