Blunkett and Those Shares.

So David Blunkett’s nice little earner in DNA Bioscience hasn’t worked out.

David Blunkett’s £15,000 stake in a DNA testing firm,
which led to his downfall from the Cabinet, appeared to be worth little
last night after the company called in insolvency practitioners.

It
is the latest in a series of blows for the former Work and Pensions
Secretary, who had to resign after he bought shares in DNA Bioscience.
Last night it was being considered whether the company should be placed
in voluntary liquidation.

This startling little piece of news needs a touch of attention:

A spokesman for Mr Blunkett said last night that he
had been aware for a while that the valuation that the media was
placing on the company was not realistic.

She said
he had kept the shares because he felt compassion for the 15 employees
at DNA Bioscience and wanted to support the firm. He would be sad if
they lost their jobs, she added.

Are we really at the point where a Labour Party spin merchant is so ignorant of the secondary market for shares? Blunkers keeping them, selling them, giving them away or using them to wipe Kimberley’s arse makes no damn difference to the finances of the firm. Or, of course our PR Poppett could simply be lying.

Still, an interesting experience all round don’t you think? Even when on the inside track, able to influence his mates in Government,  willing to risk his political career for the wads of wonga, a Labour politician still can’t avoid throwing money away on a hopeless case, pissing capital into the wind.

Just one more reason why we don’t actually want an industrial policy, don’t want the picking of winners and don’t want State subsidy  of companies. If they’re this incompetent with their own money think how awfully they spend ours.

8 responses

  1. TW: “If they’re this incompetent with their own money think how awfully they spend ours.”
    Except, Tim, the money was not his anyway. In part it was derived from his first golden goodbye. But don’t forget, this man has *never* earned a penny during the course of his whole life.

  2. Manual trackback – since Haloscan one failed:
    http://www.di2.nu/blog.htm?20051210a
    Schröder does a Blunkett
    As noted at David’s Medienkritik and even by the BBC, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder seems to have done a Blunkett and got himself a nice little earner to help him manage life after being Chancellor.

  3. It’s not true that having a 3% stake in a company makes no material difference to that company.
    Tim adds: If person x sells a 3% stake to person y then it makes no difference to the internal finances of that firm.

  4. Anybody want to start a pool? How long until Blair hires him again, and what job it’ll be.

  5. If an insider and former director of a firm sold his stake, then it could make a difference to the finances; if I were their banker I would certainly regard it as relevant information.
    Tim adds: Of course there are situations where it could. Likeif a director was guaranteeing loans….not unusual in small companies. But that’s not what hte PR woman really implied now is it?

  6. “If person x sells a 3% stake to person y then it makes no difference to the internal finances of that firm”
    True (directly at least) but that’s not what Blunkett’s spokesperson said, she said he wanted “to continue supporting” the firm. That’s a bit different.
    Tim adds: He could have put some more in from his second pay off.

  7. Oh sweet schadenfreude! As if he gives a flying fuck about the employees? He is a lying, self-serving, money grabbing-opportunist bastard of the worst kind.
    Perhaps the ginger minx at the Sunt ought to make him their share tipster?
    heheheheheheheheheheheheheh!

  8. B's Freak Avatar
    B’s Freak

    Was she actually saying that he was taking the loss to stand in solidarity with his private sector brothers and sisters?

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