What the Centre-Right Wonks are Doing - ConservativeHome
Blair Inc. - Mail on Sunday
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2009
Ashcroft Should Just Come Clean
Guido has said it before and he'll say it again: Ashcroft should just publicly come clean on his status. If he wants to take a substantial role in public life that is the price he has to pay. Presumably the Electoral Commission thinks there is a possible case to answer. Thinking about the set-up - as Guido understands it - he could well be providing his support to the Tories in the way he does via Bearwood so as to avoid having to use taxed funds. Guido has a hunch that Ashcroft is paying some UK taxes on personal funds he remits into the UK, if however he wrote a personal cheque to the Tories it would have to be out of remitted and therefore taxed income, this way it is tax free. This is just a hunch which could go a long way to explaining the set-up.Whilst they are at it, the Electoral Commission might want to also take a look at the non-domiciled backing for Labour from the likes of Lakshmi Mittal, Ronnie Cohen and Swaraj Paul - which totals nearly £10 million.Wonder if the complainant, John Mann MP, has thought this through..
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2009
Sunday Sleaze Round-Up
The Sunday Herald reports that Chancellor Alistair Darling claimed tens of thousands of taxpayers money for his designated "second home" at the same time as renting out a flat in London. He actually has some five homes to choose from.John Reid, the former home secretary, Charles Kennedy and government whip Tommy McAvoy exploited the same perk to build their own personal property portfolio.
You the taxpayer subsidised them building up a property portfolio. This scam is rife.
Gordon Brown faces censure by the Standards Commissioner, for failing to declare £1,600 in rent from subletting his constituency office to Labour Party allies. He claims from the taxpayer for the cost of the offices that he sublet.
David Miliband has been indulging in more creative accounting to avoid inheritance taxes - he should just wait for Osborne to become chancellor.How does the son of a Marxist professor end up living in a £1.3 million home without ever having a proper job outside politics?
Even some Labour MPs think Jacqui Smithis troughing it too much with her second home fiddle and they stay for three nights a week in London hotels for less than a £100 a night. Costing taxpayers much less than she claims to stay at her sisters...Who Wants to be a Millionaire MEP?
No one is really surprised by MEP's expense fiddles. The Taxpayers' Alliance has got a leaked copy of the confidential Galvin Report into Euro-fiddles. The Galvin Report, named after Robert Galvin, the EU Internal Audit Official whose name is on its front cover, was written at the end of 2006 as an audit of the expenses and allowances claimed by a sample of more than 160 MEPs.. Some of the brazen fiddles are just complete p*ss-takes. The Taxpayers' Alliance shows how it is possible to become a millionaire in a single term as an MEP with shrewd claiming of expenses and allowances. See the summary here [pdf]. British MEPs will be taking home 47% more after June 2009, nice work if you can get it...
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