President Blair has been working very hard to cut his party's reliance on trade union funding, My guess is that he's ashamed of the working class roots of the labour party, as he seems to see it as a middle class supported party. In a way it is, as many who describe themselves today as working class, are what would in the Keir Hardy days definitely be described as middle class.
The ruthless pursuit of donations from big business therefore has a twofold advantage for TB, it severes the umbilical cord of his union supplied finances, and gives his new labour party a veneer of respectability, and acceptance outside the working class.
The time is rapidly approaching when there will be a need for the trade unions to start and fund a new political party of their own, as this one has almost ceased to represent them, as well as the ethos of it's founding fathers.

Giok