The workers united, will never be out-eaten

Steerpike is back in this week’s edition of The Spectator. With union barons in the news, it’s the perfect time to reveal their expensive tastes:

The wine waiters at Claridges are taking a keen interest in the investigation into malpractice in Falkirk. And they’re hoping that Unite will be fully exonerated. Len McCluskey likes to celebrate political victories at the hotel bar with a glass of pink champagne. His most recent visit was in July 2011 after Rupert Murdoch’s ‘humblest day of my life’ admission before a Commons select committee. McCluskey toasted the press mogul’s self-lacerating words by downing a bottle of pink fizz with his old mucker Tom Watson. As they say, nothing’s too good for the workers to subsidise.

Red Len is not the only champion of the workers with a penchant for London’s finer watering holes. Who can forget those wonderful pictures of Tube strike agitator Bob Crow sinking the Chablis at Scott’s a few years ago? What’s £650 for lunch with the Brothers.