Peak Kinnock 1209


Neil Kinnock appeared on both Dispatches and Panorama this evening bemoaning the presence of socialists in the Labour Party. Neither programme succeeded in finding anything sinister happening, but they did succeed in playing a great deal of sinister music. This must have been a great boost to the sinister music writing industry, for which we should be grateful. I think they have definitively proved that some people are left wing, and would like to have left wing MPs.

But seeing Kinnock reminded me of another bit of TV I saw today, a heartbreaking advert for Save the Children featuring a dying little baby, unable to ask for help. The advert urged you to give just £2 a month to help save her.

If 11,000 people responded with £2 a month, that would not save the little baby, but it would exactly pay the £264,000 per year salary of Neil Kinnock’s daughter-in-law Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Chief Executive of Save the Children and wife of MP Stephen Kinnock. Indeed if 20,000 people gave £2 per month, that would probably cover Mrs Stephen Kinnock’s salary, her other employment costs and the money paid to Sky for the advert. When you toss in Stephen’s salary and expenses, the Stephen Kinnock household are bringing in just shy of a cool half a million pounds a year from public service and charity work.

The salary of Ms Thorning-Schmidt is approximately twice that of her predecessor, Justin Forsyth, who was on an already unconscionable £140,000. I exposed their massive salaries at the time the Save the Children awarded a “Global Legacy” award to Tony Blair. Indeed to meet the salaries and other employment costs of just the top executives at Save the Children would take 80,000 people paying £2 a month. They would be funding executives with an average salary of over £140,000. For those in work paying the £2 a month, the average UK salary is £26,000 a year, and many retired and unemployed people scrimp to find money to give to try to help the needy.

The use of charities as a massive cash cow for the political classes is a real concern. David Miliband is on over 300,000 for heading the International Rescue Committee. When I listed the Save the Children executives, they included Brendan Cox, on over £100,000. He was the husband of Jo Cox, the murdered Labour MP. Brendan Cox and Justin Forsyth were both advisers to Gordon Brown and both moved to Save the Children when they lost their jobs on Brown losing power, sliding in on 6 figure salaries. Jo Cox was an adviser to Glenys Kinnock and left that job to be an executive at Oxfam before she too worked as a highly paid Save the Children executive.

Brendan Cox left Save the Children due to allegations from several women that he sexually harassed female staff and volunteers. Justin Forsyth left at the same time amid allegations he had not effectively acted to have his friend Cox investigated. This has not stopped Forsyth from now popping up as Deputy Chief Executive of UNICEF. Misery for some is a goldmine for others.


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1,209 thoughts on “Peak Kinnock

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  • Michael Bond

    The present CEO of Save The Children is Jasmine Whitbread. She takes £4,500 a week in wages from generous donations meant for destitute children.
    If we think Charity is still stuck in the age of ”rending thy cloak in half to clothe the naked, and dividing thy bread to feed the hungry”…. we need to think again. These days “helping the needy” is Big Business. The big charities have moved so far into collusion with government and corporate interests as to become virtually indistinguishable from them.
    https://mpbondblog.wordpress.com/…/through-the-looking-gla…/

  • Alan

    Well need we say any more?

    “Brendan Cox left Save the Children due to allegations from several women that he sexually harassed female staff and volunteers.”

    And the “saintly” Mrs Cox didn’t say a word???

    Actually Craig, this reminds me of some “conspiracy theories” I may have read about TB. Of course, we must never believe any outrageous conspiracy theories.

    • michael norton

      The disgustingly rich Family Kinnock.
      They were so very sickening during the EU Referendum, Neil kept bleating about saving his own group of pensions.
      They are VERY well off thanks to the E.U.

  • michael collins

    neil kinnock was a labour leader for 10 years and wasent good enough to be prime minister he was maggies playmate and useless as an mp was made a lord for being a looser the labour party was for the working class people that something these mps that go against corby dont realise who is honest and will be the next pm

  • Dave

    Kinnockio stands need to talk about the unelectability of Labour under Corbyn, someone should remind him of his record as Labour leader; two General Elections fought, two lost. He is a thoroughly vile money-grubber whose family is well and truly following in his footsteps. He makes my stomach churn. I’d rather listen to Thatcher at the side of him, and that’s saying something.

  • Just Cann

    Thanks for the Article. It exposes the hypocrisy of some of the saintly high and mighty in the labour party and others in the labour party who will hold some of the people milking the charity as saints good doers. Shame on all in the labour party who know all this and keep it secret from the rest of us. Ordinary members of the labour party will now use this information for years to come to rub in the face of the hypocrites. many thanks.

  • Bob Smith

    Just finished reading an article of unbelievable tosh by Stephen Kinnock in the Guardian. I quite like Neil but I am afraid I can’t warm to his son. I shouldn’t think they give a toss about my option though. However, Neil is surely sensitive to this whole new political dynasty thing that is going on and whilst one wants the best for their kids, he and Glynis must be ashamed over the complete lack of integrity they are witnessing. Funding the next generation through money that should help the poor, needy and deserving is one of the things that Labour used to fight with a passion, but in their own way, are as morally corrupt in their practices and lifestyle as any Tory grandee.

  • Rob Royston

    They’re shameless. It cost me £100 to learn how they work. Of course, the intended recipients of my charity probably saw little, if any, of it.
    It was the Asian Tsunami and everyone was wanting to help. I decided to send money to one of the large children’s charities. Within days I was being bombarded with letters trying to convince me that I should set up a monthly standing order for their charity.
    I answered every letter telling them not to waste my money like they were doing and use it to help the needy. After a few weeks they stopped sending and I haven’t heard from them since.

  • Brian

    Many thanks for highlighting this classic example of nepotism . The Kinnocks were early gravy train passengers , my Lord K deserves an additional award , to wit , the OHN ( Order of the Hard Neck).

  • Mick McNulty

    At the other end of the pay-scale many charities use compulsory Workfare to staff their shops. And in Orwellian doublespeak this forced labour (who Alistair Darling termed “cohorts”) are all called volunteers.

    I got the impression the role of Jo Cox was to politicize various institutions which were previously apolitical, in the same way institutions like the Nobel Prize, Red Cross, Olympics, World Cup etc. have all been politicized. It doesn’t just happen, somebody has to go in and do it and I think charities were her field. The west cannot have totalitarianism until all these things are under their political control.

  • michael norton

    Have the Family Kinnock purchased a castle with a moat, yet, with the money from all their pensions, if they have, they could probably get us to pay to have the moat cleared out, then we could pay for a duck-house.

  • John Goss

    This is where you are at your best Craig.

    I no longer give to mainstream charities apart from Oxfam. And that is not monthly but spasmodically.

    I give regularly to Reprieve because I don’t care if Clive Stafford Smith gets £250,000 a year as a qualified lawyer, he earns every penny.

    But he does not. Some might think him a plonker for paying tax on what he gets from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. I am not one of them. He is a lawyer. He knows what he’s doing.

  • bevin

    A great post. This is what New Labour is all about. These are the ideas that the PLP wants to promote. And there is every reason to believe that the individuals MPs look upon the case of the Kinnock clan as a model to which all young careerists aspire.
    The corruption in this society is reaching the levels that it attained in, 200 yeaers ago, in Georgian Britain: all we need to learn now is that seven year old Tony Kinnock is on the Board of Save The Children, at fifty grand plus expenses and that his four year old sister Margaret is Colonel in Chief of the Cameronian Light Horse-currently based in Jordan, as well as holding a reversion to Neal’s pension.
    The New Old Corruption. Someone should look up Hone and Cruikshank’s devastating satire The Political House That Jack Built and re-write it for the funeral procession of New Labour.
    https://archive.org/details/politicalhouseth1819hone

    • John Goss

      The funeral procession of New Labour cannot come too soon. When New Labour pops its clogs there will be joy up Nab End.

    • Old Mark

      I’d like to second Bevin’s opinion on the excellence of this post- Craig you are really on a roll at the moment.

      Listen to how pleased with himself Kinnock sounds in this interview with Peter Hennessy (which for some reason is punctuated by occasional gales of laughter from the well heeled ex EU Commissioner)-

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037jfmg

      Please collect your sick bag as you pass

  • RobG

    I’m usually a big mouth, but in this instance I’ll just say: well said, Craig.

    (Gawd, the NSA are going to love you…)

  • Jennifer Morrow

    So many charities are corrupt. The scum rises to the top of the pot leaving very little for the “beneficiaries”.

  • bevin

    And not unrelated is the news from The Guardian, that the Labour Party’s struggle against democracy intensifies.
    The NEC has come up with a two person all female short list of candidates for the Batley and Spen bye election. This followed interviews in London on Monday.
    I’m hazy over what happens next. Does Ian McNichol toss a two headed coin? Is the local CLP allowed to meet?
    Are members who have joined since the election of Corbyn barred from taking part in the selection ?
    the ‘front runner’ Tracy Babin is a soap opera actress and, as a public intellectual, objects to Scotland becoming independent.
    (This is not a joke.)

    • Terry Casey

      I saw this today and though they must be parachuting someone in, I wonder if the CLP have been by-passed to put in yet another Right winger into a safe seat. not sure how this will go, has the CLP been given a choice of two more cuckoos. It has to stop and the NEC has to put an end to the undemocratic actions of the right.

      • michael norton

        It should be up the the local people to decide which candidate to select, not New Labour snouters.

        • Techno

          The members of the local Labour branch should decide. The general public decide on election day. If a local person can’t be bothered to join the local branch of a political party why should they get a say in the candidate?

  • Dean Harris

    So what to do now? I’m right behind stopping these grotesques. But what to do apart from cancelling my charities and sharing posts like this. Do any of the public donations alleviate the world’s suffering?
    I have thought for a while that all charities should be stopped and the suffering be cared for by the State. The only charity box should be to pay for our armed forces and trident. Let’s see them cream off that.

  • Sue Fewster

    I donate monthly to save the children. I am cancelling my direct debit and will be giving the money to our local children’s charities from now on. Disgusting that she takes such a large salary out of people’s donations!

  • Chris Rogers

    I’d actually like to inquire how much Baron Kinnock was paid to espouse his crap – he’s detested in his former constituency and he and his bloody clan go to great lengths to hide their considerable wealth from the locals – all of it paid out of their taxes. DISGRACEFUL!

  • LordSnooty

    Trougher Family Kinnock – isn’t there a Lloyd Webber musical in there somewhere?

    “The val-leys are alive
    With the sound of mew-sick…”

  • Hieroglyph

    I cancelled my Oxfam and Amnesty direct debits. I basically concluded that these NGO’s were interlinked with UK\US imperial aims, something that Pilger, amongst other, has written about. I suspect if you want to contribute, giving money to a local charity, volunteering, or giving a homeless person a few bucks is far better targeted. These ‘exec’ roles are non-jobs anyway, where people work part-time whilst pursuing their real interest: politics and self-advancement. Exhibit A: David Milliband.

    There are some people who, after you take one look at them, you think ‘that’s a wrong-un’. Brendan Cox is one such. I saw a pic of him and his late-wife, and did indeed think ‘wrong-un’. His subsequent politicization of his wife’s tragic murder was curious to say the least. One may sympathize, grief does strange things to people, but those harassment allegations lessen the sympathy somewhat. For the record, Owen Smith comes up on my wrong-un radar. Here in Australia, Richard Di Natale has been very strongly and consistently on my wrong-un radar since the beginning, for reasons I can’t quite explain. This radar is not perfect. Blair, alas, was not immediately spotted by temporarily malfunctioning equipment, but in that I am not alone.

    • keaton

      “There are some people who, after you take one look at them, you think ‘that’s a wrong-un’.”

      Yes, that’s called being irrational. Many of us do it reflexively, but you should try to overcome it.

  • glenn

    How people can feel satisfied in “earning” this way, feel justified, knowing they are making a very substantial living off donations intended for the most needy, is beyond me.

    At least all I’m doing is providing my relatively expensive services to a filthy capitalist company, who is screwing over their employees, the taxman (i.e. the country at large), their customers, every country they operate within, and the world in general (the environment in particular). I can sleep easy knowing I’m just bilking a massive scum-sucking capitalist multi-national corporation.

    But these Grandees, high-flyers and well connected in the champagne end of the super-charity league are bilking those closest to poverty on the whole, and have the least to give. At the other end, they are also bilking the most needy of the world.

    These people have no conscience, whatever excuses they try to make about how much value they add, et cetera ad nausium.

    • michael norton

      If the BBC can “agree” with the police, how Sir Cliff, is exposed by the Media.
      Why can’t the BBC expose, with or without the police, the wrong doings of the politicos and the charity slime balls?

  • Sharp Ears

    NuLiebour connections
    https://www.savethechildren.net/our-global-board

    ‘Jonathan Powell
    In 2011 Jonathan established Inter Mediate, an NGO dedicated to conflict resolution around the world. It is currently working on eight conflicts. Jonathan was Chief of Staff to Tony Blair from 1994 to 2007, and at the same time the British Government’s chief negotiator on Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2007. Jonathan was a British Diplomat from 1979 to 1994, specialising in negotiation…..’

    ‘Alan Parker, Chair
    Sir Alan Parker is Chairman of Brunswick Group, the leading critical communications consultancy firm which he founded in 1987. Alan works on a wide range of assignments, acts as senior consultant on many of the firm’s retained accounts and takes an active role in special project work……….’

    ‘Political connections
    Brunswick founder, Alan Parker is a close personal friend of Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah Brown. The former prime minister is godfather to one of Parker’s children and Sarah used to work at Brunswick. It was Parker who recommended Stephen Carter, former Ofcom chief executive and (briefly) the chief executive of Brunswick, to be the PM’s new chief of strategy. When Brown visited China and India at the beginning of 2008, he was accompanied not only by Carter but Parker as well, prompting one observer to ask – was the prime minister getting two advisers for the price of one?

    David Cameron, at the time leader of the UK Conservative Party and now UK PM, also attended Parker’s wedding, alongside the Browns. Parker was pictured on holiday in South Africa in 2008 with Cameron
    Previously, in 1999-2000, Brunswick paid more than £5,000 to the Labour Party for ‘tickets for dinners’, and in 2001 gave £9,000 to Labour.

    Brunswick also donated the services of an employee to the Government to help work on the Financial Services and Markets Bill – legislation which will regulate business in the City and which would provide invaluable information to Brunswick’s clients.”

    Andrew Hood, a former special adviser to the Labour Party, joined Brunswick in 2002 amid controversy surrounding claims he had been “poached” from the Ministry of Defence by the firm, whose clients Rolls-Royce and Smiths Industries indirectly supply defence firms……’

    Sir Nigel Sheinwald gets a mention too.

    http://powerbase.info/index.php/Brunswick_Group

    Rachel Kinnock worked in Brown’s office.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/gordon-brown/5463587/Glenys-Kinnock-the-lucrative-transition-from-MEP-to-Europe-Minister.html

  • Archie

    There’s long been a sinister aspect to some of the large charities. I don’t have the reference to hand, but in a book of memoirs by an old BBC correspondent (John Simpson maybe?), there’s an account of the fall of Saigon, where in the final hours he bumps into a weapon festooned American, and asks him ” Who are you with? CIA?”, and the response is “No, I’m with Save the Children”

    • Techno

      To be fair, that was a dangerous situation. Charity workers do need protection to operate in dangerous areas.

    • "Anon"

      Hi Joan

      As someone who has worked in the ‘international development’ sector for 20+ years, I agree with Craig and say Save and Oxfam at the the top are in bed with the bad guys (that’s not to say minions like myself lower down don’t do some good work). I stand to be corrected but WaterAid are worthy of your support. I’m not aware of any dirt on them and they do good work. Once upon a time there was a radical progressive message from this sector (anyone remember WTO Seattle in 99 and Make Poverty History (MPH) in 2005). The message of MPH was watered down by Oxfam and Save (I was in NGO planning meetings and know the pivotal role they played) and completely shot to pieces by that A grade tosser Geldoff at Gleneagles). It saddens me to say but I can’t think of any charity/NGO with a genuinely truthful and radical platform. War on Want is the closest UK charity but in my eyes their analysis is hopelessly naive. But don’t stop giving to WaterAid because of slimeballs like Mrs Kinnock.

  • fwl

    Does the Charity Commission have any ability to sanction this level of opportunistic salary? If so what has it done? If not why not?

  • Naomi Farr

    Wow that’s a stinger. Your revelations always knock me sideways. Thank goodness for you. You’re doing much netter work for our country than you ever could have as an ambassador. Funny old thing…life.

  • Dave

    Jo Cox was/is clearly in a well connected pro-EU network of back scratchers and her murder was promoted to support Remain. But was she murdered and what happened to the money raised in her memory? See Jo Cox false flag.

    • JKick

      What happened to the money raised in her memory?

      Automatically 8% would have paid GoFundMe fees (“They claim they’ve raised over 580 million – which means they’ve earned over 23 million for themselves), as for the rest more than likely in the pockets of Soros backed White Helmets, pro-terrorist NGO in Syria.

      White Helmets is linked to Soros through a PR firm named Purpose Inc., a pro-war firm that argues for Western intervention against Assad. The co-founder of Purpose is Jeremy Heimans, who also helped found Avaaz, a “pro-democracy” group connected to Soros’ Open Society Foundation, SEIU, and MoveOn.org.

      “The White Helmets have perhaps the most diverse array of backers and donors. The Majority of which have been covered in previous in- depth investigations and include the CIA, UK Foreign Office, Syrian Opposition factions & mercenary assassin recruitment agencies, but naturally still following the yellow brick road back to Soros.”

      http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/04/22/george-soros-anti-syria-campaign-impresario/
      https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2015/10/20/white-helmets-1/

    • Mick McNulty

      I don’t think she died. I think it was a political hoax to swing the Remain vote and she’s living in Israel working towards Zionism. Maybe after her old man’s indiscretions she decided she wanted something else and was in a favoured position to achieve it?

      • Wolsto

        What the actual fuck? Jo Cox faked her own death so she could flee to Israel?! Get this man his medication…

        • Habbabkuk

          Wolsto

          That’s McNulty for you, I’m afraid.

          If you asked him about Hitler, he’d probably tell you he was invented by the Rothschilds and is still alive in Paraguay living on the proceeds of the Greek bailout…. 🙂

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