I bet that Chris Mole is thanking God (or Dawkins – this is Mole we’re talking about) that he is charismatically challenged, and his national profile matches this. Otherwise the press would be paying an interest.

One of the key parts to this was a river of taxpayer’s money directed to Public Impact, a Reading based printing and design outfit that boasts (in a less public area of their website) that “We do not work for the other parties nor their MPs. We are staffed by Labour Party members and supporters.”

Well at last Public Impact have hit the headlines. This time it is an alleged fraud (the Police have been called in) committed by Sadiq Khan, Chris Mole’s close colleague in the Transport department. The money has been repaid and the Police have shown an interest. I personally think that Sadiq Khan was badly advised.

Who paid for your birthday cards, Chris?

Credit to Guido Fawkes for bringing the Sadiq Khan story to my notice.

1. They know each other from when Chris Mole was Labour leader of Suffolk County Council and Steve Byers was environment secretary.
2. Chris Mole deals with the trains
3. They are both in the House of Commons
4. Chris Mole has a constituency interest in National Express franchises, there’s little chance that Adonis would bypass him on this operator
5. Chris Mole is a Brownite to the Blairite Adonis, there’s no way that a recently moved Adonis would seek such a rift so soon

I wonder what the Ipswich press are doing about the local angle to a national scandal? Nothing yet, which means it’s got to be left to the blogs.

What explains the absence?

The vast bulk of their income comes from a more surprising source, and that’s gambling.  And not any old gambling, but week in, week out doorstep gambling.  In 2008 £56,926 of their total income of £79,238 came from “fundraising” (around three quarters of their total income) and this is how they describe it:

8.  Fundraising

The Unit runs a number of fundraising activities, these include:

- “100″ Club – a monthly draw;
- Red Rose Labour Tote – a weekly lottery collected door-to-door and registered with Ipswich Borough Council;
- Norfolk Labour Tote – a weekly lottery operating in Norfolk, managed by Ipswich CLP
- Instant bingo tickets – sold door-to-door, a co-operative venture with other local CLPs;
- “SWELL” lottery cards – a national fundraising scheme administered locally;
- Raffles and draws at political meetings and social functions.

This is not dinners and coffee mornings, “social events” were seperately listed and raised £1,664 in that time (this is appallingly low for a party with 264 members, but I digress).  If they are raising funds only from their committed supporters then they really should be looking at raising their subscriptions (£2,091) and donations (£4,375) which don’t need to give out prizes.  In fact, as is obvious from above this operation reaches out into the rest of Suffolk and Norfolk, and very possibly Essex as well through the “Instant bingo” tickets.

A couple of interesting facts that other people may want to follow up, do they employ people to collect the gambling stakes or is it their activists who do this?  Do Labour councillors declare their interest whenever lottery licensing is discussed?  I’m sure there are other questions.  Let’s be clear this is preferable to being funded by that public school former Communist Charlie Whelan’s Unite Union, as I’m sure that Comrade Chris Mole (Dulwich) shares my aversion to expensively educated ex-Marxists.  In fact there’s a lot to admire in the entrepreneurial nature of the whole enterprise.

The Ipswich Constituency Labour Party is in fact a door-to-door gambling operation with a couple of councillors attached.

The 2008 details are here (in PDF format).  The bulk of the Labour Party fundraising is through a profitable door to door gambling operation that reaches out into other parts of Suffolk and Norfolk.  It’s lumped together as “fundraising”.

Anyway the rent that we the taxpayer paid through Chris Mole’s parliamentary allowances in 2008 was £7,200 (up 20% from the previous year).  We also paid £3,000 extra in advance, so you could (but I won’t)say  we paid £10,200 in that year.  Enough for quarter of an agent.

But the members, what about the members.  Well they paid £2,091 in subscriptions (less than a third of Chris Mole’s rent).  They also received donations of £4,375.  Trade Union affiliation fees were £155. 

In total the membership raised £6,621.  And we the taxpayer paid £7,200.

(Photo courtesy of Guido Fawkes).

Oddly this issue was about the misuse of constituency office allowances and not about second home allowances, so it’s not covered by all the letters that MPs are getting.  This set of abuse is going to be examined later by Sir Thomas Legg.

So which MP do we know who has diverted public money intended for his constituency office to an otherwise cash-strapped Ipswich Labour Party essentially controlled by him?  Why it’s no other than our own Chris Mole.

I won’t hold my breath, Mole’s not a critic.  Unlike the Norwich North MP Iain Gibson, Chris Mole is a pliant member who won’t raise a peep against his party leadership, even when the most important hospital in his constituency is being systematically run down.

The wages of sin are death.  The wages of ignoring your constituents are promotion.

I got an email recently saying that it was actually Double S Design, run by Soo Smart, the wife of very long serving Bridge councillor Phil Smart.

How cosy.

The Evening Star’s excellent piece of investigative reporting that dug up councillor’s expenses across Suffolk shows a couple of interesting things about Ipswich. I’ve done some further number crunching (you can see the spreadheet here) and it shows that at least with expenses Ipswich is the second cheapest council per councillor and although a 4% increase is above inflation but is still far lower than the average increase in the county and lower than any proposed increase in MP’s expenses.

So for once, we can say well done to Ipswich Borough Council.  To be honest this can’t show the benefits of a Tory administration (many other Suffolk councils are Tory) but it does show that a closely competitive set of elections can keep councillors honest.  With losing by 13 votes, I’m glad to be contributing to that fear.

If Chris Mole started to think of Ipswich as being marginal would he be so cavalier in using taxpayer money to pay salaries for the Ipswich Labour Party?