Labour Party plc - New Labour as a party of business

Dave Osler, Mainstream Publishing, hardback, 256 pages, £15.99

According to the Labour Party's 1996 annual report, trade unions provided three out of every four pounds of party income in 1986. By 2000 the party claimed just three out of every 10 pounds came from the unions. This decline and the sources of new funding from the likes of rich individuals and companies are entertainingly explained in Dave Osler's book.

The book details Tony Blair's creation of New Labour as the party of big business and the way in which he has rewarded business donors to New Labour with peerages and knighthoods.

In chapter after chapter the book details the sleaze stories that Blair and New Labour have been linked to.

The book also has two useful appendices on donors, their backgrounds and their donations.

Osler concludes that "New Labour is institutionally corrupt in the same sense as the Metropolitan Police is racist."