Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones will step down shortly and wants to say ‘thank you’ to his ‘most important’ supporters – and he’ll only charge them £69-£129 a head for the privilege.
Jones has emailed details of his last ‘bash’ as leader to donors, whom he describes in fulsome terms
A couple of things leap out. ‘thank all of the people that have supported the party’? But this seems from the rest of the email to be linked to financial support. Does other support count less or not at all? Certainly those invited to be thanked would need significant resources, as we’ll see shortly.
The other is like the first: Jones is looking forward to thanking ‘many of our most important supporters’. Not ‘most important donors’, but ‘supporters’ – and he’s specific that he’s talking about those at the dinner, not elsewhere, as he says explicitly ‘on what promises to be another memorable evening’. So is ‘support’ for Mr Jones financial?
If so, then the ‘support’ involved in attending the evening to receive Carwyn Jones’ thanks is not insubstantial – as the accompanying booking form makes clear:
The cheapest ticket to the gala dinner is a ‘member’s ticket’ at £69, so Jones is not envisaging that every ‘most important supporter’ at the dinner will even be a party member. Another indication that financial support is considered more important than the day-in-day-out support expressed through membership.
Even the famously self-regarding Tony Blair is only charging £35 a head for his fundraising dinner organised for him next week in Sedgefield by the constituency’s MP, Phil Wilson.
But ‘guests’ pay £97.00 and ‘premium’ guests £129.00 per head – and individual guests can’t even book. Instead, they can only buy tables for ten people at a time.
But premium guests get to sit near the great man and his guests and receive complimentary wine. So that’s alright then.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
It’s time for change in Welsh Labour. ‘More of the same’ is not what the country needs. Hopefully the party’s decision at a recent special conference to elect its next leader by OMOV (one member, one vote) – the last of the British Labour parties to do so – will help ensure ‘more of the same’ is avoided.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Kinnock would be delighted.
Mark Drakeford, a man who stands head and shoulders above the rest, is a shoo in for next leader so that problem is sorted.
And Carwyn Jones, although a member of the ‘right’ tendency has done a pretty good job under the circumstances. He is neither a Zionist nor a Blairite and we have virtually no PFI in Wales and the NHS, although poverty stricken, has its priorities right, unlike in England. Labour is a broad church, and just because a man is sceptical about Corbyn’s leadership does not mean that he himself is a bad leader.
I wish people would abandon their flags and borders and think about class instead.
I am hairy arsed working class, I am also Welsh. I am sorry if you don’t like me being Welsh but I wouldn’t change it even if I could.
A few years ago, Carwyn Jones expressed a willingness to base Trident nuclear submarines in Wales.
A public outcry forced him to abandon such a dangerous and totally irresponsible idea:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-18509639
. . . . and they call each other, right honorable…. makes me want to puke..