Wednesday 5 January 2011

Caledonia Investments, a Scottish Tory and a PPC

More fun and games with our old friends Caledonia Investments. It struck me the other day that I hadn't checked out if they had given company funds directly to any MPs or candidates. It turns out they have in two cases, search under 'Caledonia' here.

Not big bucks in either case, but they gave £10,000 to David Mundell MP and £10,000 to Sutton and Cheam PPC Philippa Stroud. Both are notable in their own right. Mundell is the sole Scottish Tory MP, representing Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale. An interesting choice, presumably decided on because in 2005 he won the seat with about a 2,000 vote majority and the Tories wouldn't like to have their Scottish representation removed again. It's not entirely clear to me how that might align with Caledonia shareholders' interests, but hey.

Philippa Stroud, who stood unsuccessfully for the Tories in Sutton & Cheam (against a Lib Dem by the way), briefly hit the headlines for the wrong reasons during the election after The Observer ran a story claiming a religious group she was involved in tried to 'cure' gay people. She denied it outright though, and it looks like it might have been a bit of a hatchet job.

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