The row about private equity is mostly the Labour party arguing with itself

The current row about private equity seems to me to have much more to do with the flexing of union muscles in anticipation of a return to influence under Gordon Brown than it has to do with efficiency and fairness in the use of capital. The GMB union has taken the lead, publicising its claim that private-equity takeovers are fundamentally evil by staging stunts to embarrass Damon Buffini, Britain’s leading black businessman and the head of Permira, the firm that bought up Homebase, Bird’s Eye, New Look and the AA. On one occasion the union paraded a camel (and presumably the eye of a needle) outside the church where Buffini worships, to remind him how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

This reminds us that the unions’ hostility is largely provoked by envy of City pay — plus suspicion of the fact that some private-equity millionaires, including Brown’s friend Sir Ronald Cohen, are also Labour party donors.