Blair on unions

From the Scotsman:

The Prime Minister has issued a warning to Trade Unions that they will only have influence with the Labour party if they maintained strong support in broader society.

Things ye should know.

Percentage of employees in trades unions: 28.8.

Percentage of electorate who voted Labour: 21.6 (pdf).

Sure, private sector unionization is lower, at 17.7%. But voting is (regrettably) free, whilst union membership costs money.

As Kenneth Boulding said:

There is a great deal of evidence that almost all organizational structures tend to produce false images in the decision-maker, and that the larger and more authoritarian the organization, the better the chance that its top decision-makers will be operating in purely imaginary worlds.

Comments

[stu]

"But voting is (regrettably) free..."

you can't let a comment like that go without explaining yourself.

[Paul Davies]

I think he did once... probably around May

[chris]

Sorry, Stu - I wrote about it here.
http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2005/01/voting_the_righ.html
In a nutshell, making people pay to vote:
1. allows them to express the intensity of their preferences.
2. internalizes an externality.
3. forces people to think.
4. increases the case for asset redistribution, because efficient voting mechanisms are only politically acceptable if they don't give too much power to the rich.