Post Office customers wondering where the trade union barons who called the strike last week go in their spare time need look no further.
The Labour Party paymasters at Unite visit a Grade II-listed country house in Surrey that is owned by the union.
Esher Place is a £100million property where the union bosses can stay in one of 52 bedrooms.
They can browse free copies of the Morning Star and enjoying fine dining in the restaurant, or relax in the extensive lounge and bars.
The residence is billed as being “modelled on a French château”, although Unite, which has donated £9.2 million to the Labour Party since Ed Miliband became leader, claims that it is used merely for “residential courses and training”.
However, on its website, it advertises weekend breaks at Esher Place for officials, playing on its proximity to various attractions including racing at Sandown Park, the Hampton Court Flower Show, and “London Sights, Shows and Shopping”.
Dawn Anderson, a Unite official, praised the dining at Esher Hall, saying recently: “The food is wonderful!”
Seems a tad unkind really, as they do seem to be offering the rooms etc to the average member at very reasonable rates.
In order for this (quite light but all the same) smear to work it would need to be shown that the union bosses had preferential access to the place. Of which there is no evidence that has been presented…..
Free copies of the Morning Star is not my idea of luxurious decadence.
Yeah, it sounds like a great joke though. Read the Morning Star while behaving like a 1 percenter 🙂
Tim, if it’s only got 52 rooms and charges £60 a room, there has to be some way to restrict access to their millions of members, and saying no more than 2 bookings a year ain’t good enough. There’s nothing in the terms saying there’s a lottery, a waiting list, or a process for your branch chairman to recommend you, so I assume it’s all “na leva” 🙁
. . . where are the Dirty Dozen when you really need them?
“it would need to be shown that the union bosses had preferential access to the place”: yeah, and that would be so contrary to all experience, wouldn’t it?
Have you ever booked tickets for a thing? The traditional way to do this is first-come-first-served; it’d seem bizarre not to assume the same here in the absence of evidence to the contrary.
While I have no time for the socialist pricks who run the unions, this does seem to be available to all their members–as it should be since members contributions will have paid for the place. However, I would not be surprised if there will always be a room for members of the hierarchy whenever they want it as opposed to first come, first served for the rank and file. That is how most such systems work and socialism is the dodgiest of them all.