If you have concerns over the way Short Money is handled, and if you have bunnies over the public funding of pan-EU political parties, look away now.
A new paper from the TaxPayers’ Alliance out today reviews a lesser-known angle: the extent to which Brussels has been funding the think tanks of political groups.You might at a pinch be able to argue a case for it. I personally disagree, but in any event judging by the newspaper headlines over the years the released figures cover, the taxpayer has not been getting value for money. Given the state of the European economy and the fiasco over the EU Constitution, the think tanks tanked.
The really criminal part is yet to come, however. What is clear is that political movements favouring deeper European political integration have received the lion’s share of the £6.4 million at stake, by a factor of 10:1 over those critical of ever-closer union.
A council that funded ten players from Rovers and just the goalie from United would rightly be accused of bias (as well as waste). Surely that’s the case here?
