[crabcakes_windermere]

It just seems to be meals and updates, not any actual input into policy?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Farage has already said he’ll be back with a hanging, flogging, Pounds and Ounces pensioner party. And he will have a stab-in-the-back myth ready for Brexit true believers to comfort themselves in just like Planet Corbyn.

It's not just about Farage himself though. If his backers like Bozo-Gove-Cummings then it'll just be a twat in a blazer moaning. The Kipper media won't support him this time.

[Boiler]

It just seems to be meals and updates, not any actual input into policy?

As long as that's all it is, but even so it still smells of "buy a game of tennis with the Prime Minister".

[The Red Arrow]

Indeed. It's cash for access.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Are they paying?

[The Red Arrow]

I reckon so.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's not far off it, is it?

[The Weeping Angel]

According to someone on twitter this is actually based on a scheme that Corbyn himself pursued.

[Boiler]

Neither of which sits comfortably with me, TWA - but I'll be guided by wiser and longer-standing members.

[Samanfur]

The Rose Network - which is a rebrand of the 1000 Club - isn't just about the highest value donors or some sort of secret cabal.

Admittedly, I don't know the differences between perks for each membership level, but the Chair's Circle, which is what's being mentioned here, costs £416pcm or at least £5000pa.

It's not that much of an exclusive. You can download the brochure with that information page on it from the page I linked to.

It's not new. And Momentum actually saw it as an improvement when the 1000 Club was rebranded in 2018, because they reckoned that the 1000 Club had historically focused on wealthy donors.

A quick trawl for sources says that Corbyn was trawling for donors at the same levels, and I can find comparable articles going back to 2002. Whatever your opinion on the network is, the outrage seems to be that it's Keir Starmer's leadership that's involved, rather than any new information.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

A practice with a long, long history. Usually dinners where some words of wisdom are imparted, a case of casting imitation pearls in front of real swine.

I'd rather it was out in the open, rather than back-door Jenricking.

[Samanfur]

Same.

[Boiler]

I'm feeling a little more relaxed about this now I'm better informed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

People who've donated to Labour before are certainly worth speaking to, and there's nothing wrong with this group meeting, for free, with Shadow Ministers. So it isn't cash for access. The issues come later, when they meet in private with ministers. That's when deals might be done.

Worth noting that if you're after Mandelsonian donors, you probably don't stick up Angie Rayner.

[davidjay]

You need money to win elections. The days of unions bankrolling the party are gone forever. Therefore, funding has to be got from somewhere, and if it annoys the three quidders, then that's a bonus.