Kmflett's Blog

With two donations from Crypto bosses totalling £72m the issue of funding of political parties is in the news.

According to Reform the donations from two unaccountable billionaires with no transparent political agenda is just the same as trade union donations to the Labour Party. While Reform sometimes styles itself as the ‘workers party’ to expect its leaders to know anything of labour history is a step too far.

The December 1909 Osborne Judgement in the Lords made union political donations illegal after an Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (now the RMT) Branch Secretary who was a Liberal Party member had brought a case.

The Trade Union Act 1913 reversed that decision and provided for trade union political funds which required regular ballots of members and the ability not to donate. Many of the funds donate to the Labour Party but others focus more widely on campaigns. Where political fund money goes and how it is most effectively used is a live discussion.

In reality the relationship is between union leaders and Labour Party leaders, with union members exercising influence at conferences. When he was Labour leader Ed Miliband aimed to democratise this relationship by encouraging union members to become individual supporters of Labour…

It should be needless to say that these matters are beyond the grasp of Reform. They have consistently opposed improvements to employment rights, while union political funds are used to promote and extend them. Very different worlds.

Monday 28th September 5.30pm Gregor Gall ‘Marxism in Music: Constructing a Communist Contra-Culture with The Redskins, Rock’n’roll and Revolution’. On Zoom. Book (Free) Marxism in Music: Constructing a Communist Contra-Culture with The Redskins, Rock’n’roll and Revolution | Institute of Historical Research

Manufacturing Marxist music (and culture) has been the missing component of the theory and practice of the revolutionary left in Western Europe. To do so, as The Redskins did, gives us a glimpse of what can be achieved in certain conducive circumstances.

Monday 12th October 5.30pm Emile Chabal, The Age of Hobsbawm, The Life of a Revolutionary Historian. Past & Present Room (202). Institute of Historical St, Senate House, Malet St WC1. Book (Free) The Age of Hobsbawm. The Life of a Revolutionary Historian | Institute of Historical Research

Seminars are free and organised by the London Socialist Historians Group

Further Autumn Term Seminars will be added shortly

MPs approved a new Sovereign Grant in mid-September 2026 and it is now in the Lords

Sovereign Grant Bill: 14 Sep 2026: House of Commons debates – TheyWorkForYou

The Sovereign Grant is the amount of public money that goes to the Royal Family. It was introduced in 2012 when it was £31m and is set to almost double in 27//8 from the 24/5 year from £51.8m to just under £100m. The money is used for the upkeep of the Royal Estate and related security. The Royals do not get the money personally but they continue to benefit from substantial profits from the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster.

The Grant has been temporarily increased in recent years to help fund the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, even though King Charles does not live there and does not wish to do so.

Of course costs have risen considerably in recent years, what mere mortals know as the cost of living crisis, but the question remains why a very wealthy Royal Family cannot either fund more of their costs themselves or allow much greater public access and use of the Estate.

At least King Charles has made clear that the legal costs of Mountbatten Windsor in challenging the legality of his arrest in February 2026 are not covered

Andy Burnham completed the Great North Run on Sunday 13th September. He was raising money for a North-East charity that is working to end rough sleeping.

He deserves credit for actually doing the run, unlike Boris Johnson’s carefully choreographed brief jogs out of his Ministerial car and back/

He was surely on the British Road to Socialism, which dates back to 1951 and ever since has been bedevilled by road works, temporary lights and numerous diversions.

Robert Jenrick known as ‘Honest Bob’ was on Kuenssberg on Sunday opining that donations to Reform totalling £72m from two Crypto billionaires were the same as the political donations made to Labour or sometimes to a general political fund, were the same thing. They are not of course. They are governed by law and require the democratic agreement of those participating. Further they amount to a few pounds each not many millions

Before the £72m Reform had already received far more funding than other political parties.

The Observer (13th Sept) reports that in August 2026 eight out of every ten pounds spent on social media ads by political parties came from Reform. Reform’s website is currently advertising 62 jobs, likely to be local campaign organisers.

A cap on the ability of billionaires to buy political influence is one way forward although clearly that can be subverted. The example of the loss making GB News, Reform TV, being a case in point. As important trade unions, anti-racist campaigns and community groups have supporters at the grassroots in the workplaces, cafes, pubs etc who can counter the well funded lies of Reform. That costs nothing but a little time

The Observer reports that football on the 61 pitches on Hackney Marshes is currently suspended until September 27th to allow time for grass to grow on what are currently very hard surfaces. Its the result of course of climate change and the hottest summer on record. The forecast is for a wetter than average autumn, also climate change related, although the paper reports this may not help grass growth all that much if the ground becomes saturated.

The Ambridge Socialist

13^th September

Difficult times in Ambridge

The relationship between Carol and Anna has been central in BBC reports from Ambridge this week. Carol is fiercely independent but really needs some kind of care to continue in her home. Anna knows that but can’t get Carol to accept it. Carol has now ended up in hospital with a broken hip. There was a discussion between Anna and Carol about DNR. Fair play to the Archers for covering a sensitive subject minus any culture war intrusions.

 It is a familiar story of Britain 2026. The safety net of the welfare state set up in the late 1940s has a lot of holes in it. Whether the Archers is up for the discussion on welfare and warfare we shall see..

Meanwhile Lynda and Robert have been pondering the future with no guests at Ambridge Hall for their B&B business. Playing scrabble with Khalil was only a momentary distraction.

Finally Harrison has stayed overnight with Lily. Yet again there was no shower scene. Meanwhile Harrison has now fessed up to Fallon… There was an episode long discussion between them about relationships. Again it made for brilliant radio.

In Other News

Dom from the Repair Shop and other TV made an appearance at the Flower and Produce Show. Given Martyn and Daveed were judges no upsets were allowed this year

Khalil has rightly noted to Keira that if others didn’t like him at school he assumed they were racists.

Graphic: The Labour Party

Picture Guy Smallman

There was a good turn-out of anti-racists to oppose a fascist mobilisation in central Portsmouth on 12th September. It was important that the fascists did not go unopposed. Their aim is always to take to the streets and intimidate. Danny Tommo couldn’t make it so his blackshorts goons were absent. On the other hand and importantly Portsmouth Trades Council brought their banner and with it a visible link to the grassroots of the labour movement, where mobilisation against racist ideas is essential

Brendan O’Neill started his political career on Living Marxism the journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party. It was more libertarian and contrarian than Marxist and O’Neill moved on to Editor of Spiked, a successor on-line platform. More recently he has continued to move ever rightwards and writes in a range of right-wing outlets.

His thoughts on Danny Tommo’s blackshorts mobilisation in Portsmouth last weekend can be found in The Spectator. A sample paragraph is below.

According to O’Neill it was ‘working class self organisation’. One wonders if he has ever glanced at E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class still in print more than sixty years after its publication. As Eric Hobsbawm noted its a very long book so perhaps he hasnt.

Thompson looked at class formation and hence was careful to distinguish between activities which involved workers and an organised working class. One example of the former were the 1780 Gordon Riots in central London. A mob started out attacking the houses of religious dissenters, then freed prisoners from Newgate jail and finally marched on the Bank of England. At this point the army was called out.

The mob was influenced and to some extent directed by ruling class figures. Clearly they did not have in mind an attack on the Bank. It was a working class in the process of formation, not yet independent.

Examining Tommo’s blackshorts we can see a familiar pattern. Tommo reportedly receives funding from the US Christian right and he certainly raises money in the kind of grift familiar to the far right. He is currently ‘fund raising’ to buy his mother a new house (an entirely bogus objective of course). In short what took place in Portsmouth was not ‘self-organisation’ but the efforts of Tommo and others influenced by the US Christian right

How do we even define this? What do we call it? The media has reached for that small, familiar word “protest”, as if this were a mere outburst of public anger over government policy. It was so much more than that. This was ordinary men and women stepping into the breach left by the state’s desertion of our borders. It was working-class self-organisation in defence of our national sovereignty. It is unprecedented.