In the interests of balanced blogging, I must mention this recent story.
It isn’t just grasping cabinet ministers and disgraced bank chairmen who’re taking the piss.
To put it into some sort of proportion, every time Derek Simpson checks into his £399 a night hotel, he spends on his members’ behalf over three times the maximum subscription rate of about £120 a year.
The union’s reponse to the revelation in the press that its leader had been pissing away such large amounts of its members’ dosh was that
“Mr Simpson did stay at the Waldorf Hilton hotel on the nights mentioned as this was operationally appropriate for his commitments at the time.
“He is the joint leader of a multi-million-pound organisation, in which capacity he represents our members in dealings with employers of all sizes, including leaders of global companies as well as government.
“It would be undermining to his ability to deliver for those members if the union prioritised cheapness of accommodation above appropriate facilities and location as necessary for the particular event.”
Now, I’m not expecting Simpson to spend the night in a dosshouse, but surely he doesn’t need to blow £400 a night on a hotel?
Here’s a nice looking hotel for a quarter of that and only 5 minutes from his offices in Covent Garden.
It seems quite adequate to me.
If the union is that bothered about what amounts to ‘keeping up appearances’ then maybe it should be less concerned about placing Simpson in luxury accomodation and more concerned about not looking like yet another organisation that allows its bosses to misuse their positions of responsibility and buttfuck the people who put them in those positions in the first place.
Of course, such a volte face would show that Unite’s leadership was more concerned about the feelings of its members than about the comfort of of its leaders…
To judge by the many comments I’ve come across, it seems that many Unite members wish that this was so.
If I was a Unite member, I’d be asking for this former Communist’s bollocks on a fucking plate.
More on this miserable cunt here and here.
Filed under: Annoyances, Current affairs | Tagged: £399 a night, cunt, Derek Simpson, London, taking the fucking piss, Unite, Waldorf Hilton |
Hundreds and Thousands (on the trifle of life) 
I was so angry and appalled at this story that I left the union in protest. This is my story: http://blog.matthewcain.co.uk/ive-left-unite-the-union/
Matthew, many thanks for commenting and giving the link for your own story. Like you, I believed in unions and from college got involved with the NUT. I eventually ended up helping people through the redundancy procedure until I was made redundant myself. I have to say that all my union experiences were very positive and they really helped me when they negotiated redundancy and both retirement on ill-health grounds on my behalf. I met some high profile officers and they all seemed very straight.
There seems little doubt that the Mail – a paper I usually mistrust – was right in its reporting on at least this occasion. The Union’s statement leaves no room for doubt. I was appalled, so I can only imagine how you must be feeling… betrayed, angry, scandalised probably doesn’t begin to describe it.
OK, unions have come a long way since the days of ‘everybody out!’ and a good job too, but when their leaders start behaving like all the rest of the privileged and abuse their position – and so blatantly too! – then it seems time for a radical rethink on who exactly is protecting their members and what their motives really are.
All the best – Steve.
[…] is where my brain nearly imploded. I blogged about a certain Derek Simpson a few months ago. Yes, the Unite leader who pisses away union funds on £400 a night hotel rooms. […]
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