SunnySideUp

..... has admitted, after 10 years of asking, that he doesn't pay full UK Taxes!!

WTF!!!!!!???????

It is an outrage!!

Leader Nick Clegg added: "I think if you are seeking to influence the outcome of the next general election... then it is wholly wrong that you basically seek to pay taxes only partially in this country."

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has called for the full details of Lord Ashcroft's status to be made public and criticised "evasive and obfuscatory" replies given by senior Tory politicians on the subject.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the 63-year-old, who is estimated to be worth £1.1bn by the Sunday Times Rich List, was one of the biggest ever donors to a political party and was at the centre of the Conservatives' election campaign.

Same old Tories .. sleaze, sleaze and then more sleaze!!

cster

You got nothing better to be doing at 12:15 am?

The Zohan

Because the Labour party and Lib Dims is as white as snow Pete!
Conservatives accuse rivals of hypocrisy over Lord Ashcroft | Politics | The Guardian

As cabinet ministers and senior Lib Dems rounded on Ashcroft, the Tories released a lengthy dossier showing the extent of alleged non-dom donations. They highlighted:

• Lord Paul, chairman of the global steel company Caparo Group, donated £69,250 to Labour, including £45,000 to Gordon Brown's leadership campaign. Asked whether he would fund Labour when Brown toyed with an election in 2007, Paul said: "If there is an election and the money is wanted, whatever I can pay I will pay."

Paul was appointed a member of the privy council last year. He told BBC Radio 4's The World At One today: "It is really ridiculous for anybody to start comparing me to anybody. My view has been simple – perhaps I am one of the most open people, that I am non-dom. That's what the law allows me, and that's what I am. I have never hidden the fact, or said it was my own private affair. I don't know why they are using my name, except to cover themselves up."

• Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate who heads ArcelorMittal, has donated £4.125m to Labour.

• Sir Ronald Cohen, appointed by Brown as chancellor to chair the Social Investment Taskforce, has donated £2.55m to Labour. He declines to discuss his tax affairs, according to the Tories. When asked about his tax status by the Daily Telegraph in 2009, his spokesman said this was "out of bounds".

• Sir Christopher Ondaatje has donated £1.7m to Labour since 2001. The Guardian wrote in 2002 that he claimed non-dom status.

• Bruno Sanglé-Ferrière, the French-born chief of Carrousel Capital, is "reportedly" a non-dom, according to the Tories. His company donated £354,000 to the Lib Dems since 2005. He also gave £10,000 to the leadership campaign of the home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne – who said today it was "completely reprehensible" to accept money from non-doms.

Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Harwich who campaigns for transparency in politics, said: "It is hypocrisy for Labour and Liberals to be pointing the finger when so much of their funding comes from rich plutocrats. The answer to this is to make all political parties more dependent on small donations. That is how, in the age of the internet, we should be funding our politics."

The Zohan

Not forgetting Harriet Hardon, The Deputy Leader of the Nu Liar party who breaks the laws of this country as she see's fit - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...car-crash.html

It is the arrogance of this dreadful woman that really gets me The MP for Camberwell and Peckham is reported to have wound down her window following the crash and said to witnesses: "I'm Harriet Harman – you know where you can get hold of me," before driving off.
what a b!tch

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

LOL, here we go again. So the parties are all full of dishonest people so the key is to argue as to which is the least dishonest party and then vote them in

As an aside I love this obsession SN has with the Harriet Harman driving thing. The media and people on here make it sound like a hit and run etc. etc.

Turns out it was a parking incident where the owener of the car she hit called the police despite the fact there was no damage to either vehicle. If that happened to a SN member on here everyone would be saying what a petty person he must have been to call the police whereas because its Harriet Harman everyone wants her hung drawn and quartered.

The double standards of SN, don't you just love them?

The Zohan

LOL!
Morning,
Point completley missed in your blind bid to have a pop at SN contributers

I posted to balance up the debate (if you can call it that) and the point is that all the parties are dishonest or at least happy to bend the rules as they see fit. I found it ironic that NL and the Lib Dims should choose sleeze yet again when they are so happy to use it to their advantage

It is called Balance

BTW Horrid Harmon - Harriet Harman fined £350 after pleading guilty to driving offence | Politics | The Guardian
Hardly squeaky clean or is this a 'fit up' as well - By the Guardian of all the media - Lol!

Oh and Pete started it

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

LOL, Pete starts everything round here though

I just mean that it seems silly to have a tit for tat argument over which party has dishonest members when all that does is make you realise none of them are really fit to govern.

Re. Harriet Harman never said she was squeaky clean and personally I can't be doing with her, but in this case surely you agree that if a SN member posted on here saying he was being done for driving without due care and attention after hitting a parked car so gently that no damage was caused we would all be castigating the police/CPS/person who reported the crime for being petty yet becuase it is Harman we all rejoice.

Please tell me you can see that and that you recognise it is a case of double standards.

Xx-IAN-xX

Should you really be throwing stones SSU

The Zohan

Yes, i do see what you are getting at and double standards, well OK. I do think that if an SN member reported that they had been reported and benig procecuted for not stopping at an accident of thier making then they would get a lot af abuse, no one likes people who do this and i for one am happy to see anybody procecuted for this sort of offence.

If dismissed due to lack of evidence or such then i would be equally outraged at the CPS for wasting time and money.

Harriet Harmon should set an example, lead by example and from the front as should all politicians which is why i get so venemous towards them and their disregard and sometimes abuse of thier position.

I would rather that we did not have anything to discuss and they behaved impecably and set an example - sadly with some MP's and politicians - this is not the case.

SJ_Skyline

Pete,

You need a new net

Leslie

Pete,

Forget all the individuals and their wrongdoings.

Can you think of a good reason why nearly all the MP's, from any party you like to mention, should not be kicked out of the House for their dishonest behaviour and that we start again with a new set who are known for honest dealings in the past.

What does Labour charge the working man through the unions by the way?

Les?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Oh, the irony.

The double standards are from a SENIOR minister, a member of a government which has introduced over 3600 new laws since taking power 13 years ago, who thinks said laws don't apply to her.

Please tell me YOU can see it's a clear case of double standards?

I mean, come on..........it's a bit like the oft-repeated "Benefit Cheats" advert, which cheerfully fails to mention the 500 or so they found in the commons, of which only FOUR MIGHT get prosecuted

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Good idea: you reckon we could find 600 or so honest people to do the job?

hodgy0_2

look on the bright side

at least we have a level playing field

The Zohan

How about we put all three parties on a playing field, rudimentary weapons and let them fight it out

stilover

Fair play to him I say. If I was that rich and could afford to pay for the right advice, I'd avoid paying full UK Tax too.

hodgy0_2

sounds like a plan

widdecombe v prescot -- is a fight i'd like to see

and I bet Mandleson would be fighting to get right to the bottom of the scrum

The Zohan

I am sure Mande would try to bugger them to death and a lot of the public school educated Tories would quite literally be up for it.

The Widmeister only need to throw an egg at two Jags and he would be at her - if i had to put money on it (and i would) it would be on Ann Widdecombe

As sure a poo stinks some would claim the mileage/travel on expenses and dry cleaning costs

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Look I know what you mean about setting an example and all the shady things they have done including her in the past, but in this instance she drove away having bumped a parked car so lightly that no damage was done to either vehicle (a fact admitted by the owner of the car she hit) and yet she gets prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.

Imagine if you read a post like this on here:

"Hi all,

Today I nudged a car when parking and now have had a visit from the police due to a complaint by the owner of the vehicle I hit. Even he admits there is no damage to his vehicle and there is none to mine either yet the police are doing me for driving without due care and attention. I know I shoudln't really have driven off, but surely this is a bit OTT considering there was no damage.

What do you all think?"

Now tell me honestly would all the replies be

a) full of vitirol and bile saying he should know better and serves him right

or

b) would it be a case of that is a bit harsh, get a decent solicitor, police should just give him a ticking off etc.?

Come on, be honest you know it would be b)

I am not defending her per se but I just think that it is far too easy to allow who someone is affect how you feel about something that happens to them. It is clear here that the media blew this out of proportion when with this government's record they hardly need to LOL!

Leslie

Well for a start I don't think we need 600 of the blighters anyway. The only way really is to insist that those put up for election are of good character in the first place and then arrange the expenses in such a way that they can't cheat and that temptation is not put in their way. Might give the Prince of Darkness a bit of a problem to qualify though had they not enobled the lying prat.

Les

SunnySideUp

I was just reporting that the Deputy Chairman of the Tory Party doesn't pay his UK taxes and I think that is a disgrace .... whether or not other parties have their skeletons!

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Sorry f1 fan, it's not about what we might, or might not, do in those circumstances. The law requires you to stop and exchange details etc.

As a senior minister, she should have adhered to the very letter of the law. Whiter than white, nothing but.

For all WE know she fekked off because she'd had a drink

Devildog

LOL

More sensationalist media bile regurgitated by Pete without actually thinking about it first*


Would you still consider it a disgrace if the headline had been:

"Deputy Charman of political party operates entirely within the scope of UK and overseas tax legislation?"

I did consider the similarities between the legal and ethical point, as with the whole expenses scandal, however tax is dfferent in so far as tax laws are completely transparent, whereas the expenses payments were not.

So, Pete - I'm also curious as to whether or not you think this is a "disgrace" because someone with influence is not contributing to UK plc's coffers to the extent you believe someone in that position should, or whether you think its a "disgrace" because someone is quite understandably and completely legally not paying tax in the UK on income earned outwith the UK?




*either that or he's trolling/fishing, call it what you will

Splitpin

He pays full UK taxes on his income inside the UK. He pays no tax inside the UK on money he earns outside the UK, because he pays tax in the countries where he earns that money.

Which seems to me to be pretty much fair to me. Are you suggesting that British citizens should pay income tax twice on money earnt overseas - over there and here?

It's no different to the way multinational companies pay tax in the UK on their earnings in the UK, pay tax in France on their earnings in France, and so-forth. Again are you suggesting that companies should be taxed twice? If so that'd be a pretty effective way to comprehensively f**k the UK economy.

It's also exactly the same as the way multi-millionaire Labour Party donors Lord Paul, Lakshmi Mittal and Ron Cohen have conducted their affairs, so I'm not quite sure what your point is?

Indeed, if the position of Labour is that non-doms shouldn't have an political influence, either financial or other, I'm not sure how that squares up with their own record, given that they have three major non-dom donors who have collectively donated far more to Labour than Ashcroft has to the Tories.

Lord Paul pretty much personally paid for Gordon Brown's "leadership campaign" and is now a member of the Privy Council, while Tony Blair enthusiastically lobbied in favour of Mittal's business interests while he was Prime Minister.

In addition, Michael Ashcroft has been absolutely untouched by the parliamentary expenses scandal, seeing as his expenses over the last nine years amount to precisely £0.

Whereas, Lord Paul has claimed over £283,000 and is currently under investigation by the police over claims of expenses fraud. Paul also screwed over former employees of the steel company by buggering up their pension fund.

And to think that it's Lord Mandelson, he of dodgy mortgages, arranging British passports for Labour donors, who's throwing these stones. Hope the glass in his glasshouse is reinforced.

Devildog

Splitpin,

If you didn't know already, the OP never lets the facts of a particular matter get in the way of a sensationalist post

Bram

I watched Kirsty Wark have a go at that shadow secretary for Education for the Tories on Tonight (last night). He was put on to be the buffer and smarm his way out.

Alas he was caught cold when she read out two articles from the Times right at the start, the poor fud had wrote them in his column when he worked for the Times stating Ashcroft would be the worse thing for the Tory party due to his tax status.

The poor fud then went on to rubbish his own words stating it was just a wee laff and nearly made out the Times is a paper for baffoons with him the chief baffoon writing for it. Is this the calibre of Tory we have, no wonder DC keeps them in the dark and does not let them out without a chaperone. He clearly showed he did not have the conviction to stand up for what he wrote, god help us all with a man like this in charge of our children education.

I thought the Times reporter on the panel with Kirsty had swallowed a very large turd. He was in great disbelief and looked shell shocked as his Tory friend/past colleague disintegrated in front of him with only "Labour got them too excuse, hope you going to ask them as harshly, sob sob. I thought he was going to strop off and have a good greet to himself. If he had any pride he would resign as he failed totally to grasp he should have integraty in his position.

The question needing asked was why the Tory has a nom dom as Deputy not paying tax but trying to direct the voters to his way of thinking and tax cuts etc when he pays nout himself on his billion's. Condescending or what, or just typical Tory regard for the UK public at large. Trust us we are tories we were bred for leadership.

Labour/Liberals can answer for themselves when asked about the nom doms they have, but non influence the way the public vote like Ashcroft, this was what torys are missing or do notr want ot answer. It was shambolic and I dread even more if the Tories win with baffoons like this to lead the country god help us. It's all just a wheez and a laff and jolly hockey sticks. And please as a tory never dare ask me awkward questions as no one has given me auto cue to answer it and I am bloody superior to you I went to private school.

Where do they find such individuals they cannot be just genetics at work can it as I seem to see great numbers of them in the Tory ranks or when DC aint looking speak on telly.

Splitpin

Oh yes, well aware of that. However I tend to find that the easiest way to neutralise folk like that is to point out the facts of the matter and allow everyone else to draw their own conclusions.

SunnySideUp

Well written, well spotted and nail hit firmly on head.

The Tories are a shambles .... swanning around with the slogan, "Time for a Change"!! Is that the best they can do? What about "Time for some Policies"!!!!???

The Tories are going to come undone ... when faced with pointed questions they buckle and collapse - they haven't a clue.

And Brown will be in again .... quite simply he's the only one who knows what's going on!