Damian Collins MP £17,600 Worth of Donations & that Glastonbury Ticket.
Damian Collins MP registered £17,600 in donations on July 17 2017. Mr Paul Francis (pictured), Political Editor of the Kentish Express for some reason chose to focus on Damian’s ticket to Glastonbury. He chose not to focus on the fact that Damian received a £3,000 donation from Alison De Haan, the wife of Sir Roger De Haan.
Nor did Mr Francis inform you that Mark Quinn, (pictured) who is a developer of building projects donated £5,500 to Damian. Mr Quinn donated the money via Quinn Estates Ltd; which is owned and controlled by another of Mr Quinn’s companies, Quinn Investments Limited according to Companies House
Mr Quinn previously donated £9,000 on the 25/05/15 to the local Folkestone & Hythe Conservative Association, according to the electoral commission webiste . This takes Mr Quinn’s donations to £14,500.
Another interesting fact that Mr Francis dropped from his piece was that Landcap Limited , owned and controlled by Rakan McKinnon, (who knows Mr Quinn) donated the sum of £2,500 to support Mr Collins.
Landcap Ltd, who deal in the management of real estate on a fee or contract basis are also sole owners of Landcap Development Eversley Ltd , according to Companies House. Mr McKinnon via his company donated £3,000 in April 2015 to the local Folkestone & Hythe Conservative Association, according to the electoral commission website. Meaning overall the owner, Mr Rakan Mc Kinnon, has donated £5,500
Also Datum Groundworks,(who have worked with Quinn Estates Limited) owned and controlled by Mark John David Wyn & Goody Demolitions Ltd , according to Companies House, donated the sum of £5,000 to support Damian Collins MP.
A donation of £3,000 was also accepted by Damian from Alison De Haan, the wife of Sir Roger De Haan
Finally, Damian received a further £1,600 donation from Gresham Research Invesments & Trading Ltd; which is owned by Ann and William Stephen O’Leary (pictured) of Rose Lodge, Lookers Lane Hythe, according to Companies House.
William Stephen O’Leary works for Hottinger Bank, according to their website and Damian trousered £4,000 from Hottinger according to his register of interest in 2012/13. Also Hottinger Bank also shows up in the Panama Papers.
So, Damian (pictured) has received the support of £17,600 from all of the above people according to his Parliamentary Register of Interests updated on the 31st July 2017. Yes, you can see his Glastonbury ticket too.
We believe this information is pertinent, as donors often, but not always, expect soemthing in return. This is well documented in Democracy Ltd – How Money & Donations Corrupted British Politics.
Why didn’t Paul Francis tell us about the £17,600 donations?
Anyway, companies don’t give their money away for nothing. There is an understanding (rarely made explicit) that donations buy political access and other favourable consideration in policy development, legislation and other areas. Why else would a company, which is bound by law to pursue profit, make these donations?
There is no limit or cap on the amount a permissible donor can give to a political party in the UK. And donations have led to many a political scandal
Mr Quinn a busy man in Kent, has stated
“Politicians only represent the views of the people who vote them in.” We believe that is a naive statement, as Mr Collins does not it appears, represent the views of the people regarding Otterpool Park. We believe he represents Mr Quinn‘s interests, more readily than he does the populace of Shepway.
To be fair to Mr Quinn he does like to engage with the community and could be considered to be open and transparent on this front. However, that is only half the truth and omitting the fact that you have donated £14,500 in donations to a political party or MP could be considered as spin, or at worse fake news; which our Damian tweeted about from Glastonbury.
Donations given today are in expectation of future favours whether they be financial, political, the supply of information or the provision of access to ministers. Altruism rarely has anything to do with it. If the donors concerned disagree with this assessment I am sure you would be delighted to give them the opportunity for them to explain their motivation(s) for making their donations.