OK, I've looked at the individual names on the TPA's business supporters list now, and come up with quite a few more Tory donors. Again this data comes from the Electoral Commission -
* Lord Chadlington - £45,700 cash, £3,533 non-cash
* Sir Michael Cobham - £6,500
* Sir Tom Cowie - £661,250
* Sir John Craven - £26,000
* Damon de Laszlo - £15,000
* Patrick Evershed - £136,000
* Michael Heller - £30,000
* John Hoerner - £22,500
* Kambiz “kim” Jabesi - £14,850
* Margot James - £2,500
* Lord Kalms - £557,700 cash, £108,800 non-cash
* Gary Mond - £10,250
* David Ord - £188,000
* A R Tanner - £3,250
* John (Lord) Taylor - £8,600
* Lord Vinson - £2,000
* Gerald Wakefield - £39,500
* Sir Mark Weinberg - £158,750
* Stuart Wheeler - £3.5m plus (switched to UKIP now)
And...
* Gerald Kaye - £85,000
* John Leavesley - £31,000
* Malcolm McAlpine - £4,000
These last three work at companies I included in the first list.
So at least 22 of the people on the list have donated money to the Tories themselves, and at least 15 of the companies they work(ed) for have done. There is an overlap of three, so the total number of links to the Tories on the list is 34. There are 147 people on the list in total which means that there is a direct financial link to the Tories in respect of 23% of them. A pretty high proportion innit? And I may have missed some.
4 comments:
"There are 147 people on the list in total which means that there is a direct financial link to the Tories in respect of 23% of them. A pretty high proportion innit?"
Is it?
One possible explanation for what you've found is that rich people who donate to political groups (ie, parties) also donate to political groups (think tanks).
That isn't the most earth shattering finding.
I'd expect to see much greater overlap between , say, Labour Party donors and the Fabians....
"I'd expect to see much greater overlap between , say, Labour Party donors and the Fabians...."
yes so would I, given that that the Fabian Society is affiliated to the Labour Party. doh!
but the TPA claims to be an independent grassroots campaign.
I don't really follow this argument; are you suggesting that the TPA is not independent because some people who support it financially also do the same for political parties? If so, would that mean that any pressure group that wishes to claim independence would have to introduce a complex vetting system to refuse donations from anybody who also donates to political parties, asuming this could be done legally?
How would this sit with "independent" campaign/lobby groups who rely heavily on government funding in order to lobby the same government that funds them? A dubious practice if ever the was.
what's not to get? all I'm doing is pointing out that a large chunk of the TPA's supporters are Tory donors, some of them major ones.
I think that tells us something about their political inclination. In the same way if a think tank claiming to be independent had a load of Labour-affiliated trade unions as supporters I am sure people would draw conclusions about it's political orientation.
It's striking that of the individuals listed the only other party donated to was UKIP (Tim Congdon).
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