Socialist money for F1's right-wing raver?

I think Jack Layton's brain has lost its ideological traction control:

NDP would return Grand Prix to Montreal: Layton

MONTREAL -- NDP Leader Jack Layton says he'd spend federal money to bring the Canadian Grand Prix back...

Dippers paying Bernie Ecclestone with tax dollars?

...The chief of Formula One - and Britain's tenth richest man - Ecclestone has recently been attacked by residents of the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad after he raised the price of drinks in the town's Olden Hotel, which he owns.

...Ecclestone, 77, has been variously described as a "dictator" and an "evil genius".

In 1997, he became the subject of the first Blair financial scandal, after giving £1 million to Labour. The donation was returned amid huge controversy when the government subsequently exempted Formula One racing from a ban on tobacco advertising. The media called it "Cash for Fags".

[...]

"I hate democracy as a political system," Ecclestone continues. "It stops you getting things done. I think people should have decisions made for them."

As for some of the less palatable aspects of dictatorship, he remarks casually that "torture is just an old-fashioned way of getting things done".

"A good dictator is better for a country than a democracy. Democracy in Britain leads to confusion and bad compromises. In a democracy, the Prime Minister is always influenced by someone or some group or the Press. I myself have never voted. What's the point?"..

The NDP does have a rather ineffective research department.

Mark C.

Damian adds: there is a precedent for a socialist-F1 alliance: the late Francois Mitterand poured milions of francs into the Magny-Cours track, and made sure the Ligier team was heavily sponsored by French state-run companies.

Sleaze update, Jack:

The documents - released to The Sunday Telegraph after a two-and-a-half year Freedom of Information battle - reveal that Mr Blair personally intervened to secure Formula One's exemption from the tobacco advertising ban just hours after meeting Bernie Ecclestone, the motorsport's billionaire boss...

One knows that Tony, what with Iraq and Afghanistan, is not exactly your cup of tea, Mr Layton--but Bernie? Get that research department on the job, eh? "Cash for Fags". Gasp.

Posted by markc at October 11, 2008 12:04 PM