Bolitics The New Condem Government

[Gringo]

This is nothing about desperate, this is a very big story and rightly will get talked about until Gideon gets his axe out during the England match

The budget is on 22nd June, the day before the ingerland game.

[drat01]

Cameron and Clegg the two leaders of this new set in charge both made a lot of media inches from their own parties at that time being in the clear re expenses.

I must have dreamt all that stuff about moats, duck houses and osbornes limousine back from chester then.

Shhh that is in the past and doesn't count

I am positive that further politicians from all parties will have more expenses exposed for public scrutiny in the next few weeks / months and the hypocrisy will be shown from all sides. the important thing about this incident is the high level of who it concerned and the repercussions for an already fragile ConDem setup

Who'd have thought we would have had a resignation so quick? .........

[drat01]

This is nothing about desperate, this is a very big story and rightly will get talked about until Gideon gets his axe out during the England match

The budget is on 22nd June, the day before the ingerland game.

yes and the media (newspaper) headlines for the following day will be about what do you think? It's a coincidence of course

[markavfc40]

How both Cameron and Clegg can describe a man who has ripped off tax payers for 40k as honorable is beyond me.

[bickster]

How both Cameron and Clegg can describe a man who has ripped off tax payers for 40k as honorable is beyond me.

They are politicians

[drat01]

and it seems that the trickle continues - a leading Tory donor was stopped from becoming a peer by the tax man according to the Times

link

ONE of the Conservative party’s biggest donors has been blocked from becoming a peer by the House of Lords vetting body because of apparent concerns over his tax affairs.

Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of the JCB construction equipment firm, had his nomination rejected by the House of Lords Appointments Commission after the tax authorities failed to support it.

The revelation comes as a blow to David Cameron, the prime minister, who had personally recommended Bamford for ennoblement.

It will raise further questions about the funding of political parties and the rewarding of donors with honours.

Days before the list was published on Friday, Bamford wrote to Cameron withdrawing his name from the process. He said he wanted to concentrate on running his company.

A spokesman denied his withdrawal was anything to do with his name being vetoed by the appointments commission. He said he was unaware that any concerns had been raised about his tax affairs.

With his family, Bamford is one of the Tories’ most generous backers. His firm has given the party £1.5m, while Bamford, 64, has donated £86,000 including £10,000 worth of helicopter rides to Cameron. The businessman, whose wealth is £950m, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, was awarded a knighthood in 1990.

News of Bamford’s nomination by Cameron was leaked last month along with that of Simon Wolfson, another Tory donor and chief executive of Next, the high-street retailer.

Wolfson was included on the list of peers announced on Friday, which also included Floella Benjamin, the former Play School presenter, and Sir Ian Blair, the former Metropolitan police commissioner.

The appointments commission, which consists of senior figures from all parties, advises the prime minister, after scrutinising nominees’ affairs, about whether they are fit to sit in the Lords. The prime minister has the right to reject the advice.

The commission consults HM Revenue & Customs to find out whether the tax authority has ever had an issue with a nominee.

The Revenue tells the watchdog whether it can support the nomination. In Bamford’s case, The Sunday Times has learnt, it did not. There is no suggestion that Bamford has done anything illegal or improper.

A spokesman for Bamford said: “Sir Anthony was approached by David Cameron six months ago to be a working peer with a brief for manufacturing and engineering.

“However, he has decided he would not be able to devote the time to the House of Lords ... and feels that he still needs to commit full-time to the affairs of the JCB group.”

More and more hypocrisy from the Tories it seems. Absolutely amazing that Tax avoidance is seen as something that should seemingly be encouraged by Tory donors

Bamford of course was another of these businessmen that said that any NI increase would cost jobs - doesn't tax avoidance cost jobs then?

[briny_ear]

Not sure if this is relevant to this thread but I'm reluctant to start up a new one just for this.

I just thought it was funny that Liam Byrne, MP for Hodge Hill and outgoing Chief Secretary, has finally owned up to being a bit of a prat...

Click here.

his constituency is quite near St Andrews so I guess that explains a lot.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

They are all bastards really.

[drat01]

It seems the Torygraph don't like the new bloke either!

Danny Alexander, new Treasury chief, avoided capital gains tax on house

The new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, avoided paying capital gains tax when he sold his taxpayer-funded second home at a profit, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Mr Alexander, who was appointed on Saturday after the resignation of fellow Liberal Democrat David Laws, designated the property as his second home for the purpose of claiming parliamentary expenses but described it to HM Revenue and Customs as his main home.

Last night Mr Alexander admitted that he took advantage of a loophole to legally avoid paying CGT on the sale of the south London property for £300,000 in June 2007.

The disclosure that he failed to pay CGT comes at a particularly sensitive time because the Coalition is planning to increase the rate of the tax for owners of second homes and buy-to-let properties in an emergency budget next month.

.......... more on link

With CGT being one of the broken promises from the ConDem's this is again showing the hypocrisy - that is 34564564 times used now for those counting - of politicians. Again and again all of this bollox they are spouting (and yes that includes some Labour I suspect) re cleaning up their act is shown to be complete and utter crap.

But still if you have a few pounds to spare or avoid any tax paying you will be OK - at least you can doss down in the HOL

[TheDon]

Not sure if this is relevant to this thread but I'm reluctant to start up a new one just for this.

I just thought it was funny that Liam Byrne, MP for Hodge Hill and outgoing Chief Secretary, has finally owned up to being a bit of a prat...

Click here.

his constituency is quite near St Andrews so I guess that explains a lot.

I wouldn't say he was a bit of a prat, it was just a bit of gallows humour that the press have slaughtered him over.

[markavfc40]

Politicians must think we are all thick.

David Laws claims he claimed £40k he was not entitled to due to not wanting his sexuality to be disclosed. What stoppped him from just saying a mate of his had a room he could have rent free so he had no need to claim for a second home allowance. No one would have questioned that.

This little **** though has decided to use his sexuality as some kind of excuse for being a thieving bastard.

[Gringo]

In September, in the wake of the expenses scandal, Mr Laws changed his arrangements by claiming for a separate flat not owned by Mr Lundie.

So instead of just stopping to claim, he moved his claim. Wonder what he did with this other flat seeing as he was still with Mr Lundie.

[TheDon]

Politicians must think we are all thick.

David Laws claims he claimed £40k he was not entitled to due to not wanting his sexuality to be disclosed. What stoppped him from just saying a mate of his had a room he could have rent free so he had no need to claim for a second home allowance. No one would have questioned that.

This little **** though has decided to use his sexuality as some kind of excuse for being a thieving bastard.

Ah but see, like all his mates have said, he's independently wealthy, so he had no need to rip us off for 40k, so that makes it all ok.

[thetrees]

The papers will continue to intermittently bring up new 'evidence' on individuals, in an attempt to keep stringing the story along and destabilise the country. The country is in the crap and needs stable government, with the best available talent, to get us on the right road.It is time for 'truth and reconciliation' on MP's expenses.

If we can give people who have (allegedly) ordered murders power in Ulster, I am sure that we can accept the regrets and financial payback from some errant MPs, put all of this behind us, and ensure that the claiming of expenses is not so easy in the future.

[Gringo]

The papers will continue to intermittently bring up new 'evidence' on individuals, in an attempt to keep stringing the story along and destabilise the country. The country is in the crap and needs stable government, with the best available talent, to get us on the right road.It is time for 'truth and reconciliation' on MP's expenses.

If we can give people who have (allegedly) ordered murders power in Ulster, I am sure that we can accept the regrets and financial payback from some errant MPs, put all of this behind us, and ensure that the claiming of expenses is not so easy in the future.

I don't remember you saying that when labour where in power and people who have (not allegedly) been responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in foreign countries; nor the people now in power who continue to support the US action of drones (not allegedly) killing innocent civilians.

To not be able to distinguish the aftermath of northern ireland, south africa and other nation states and the ensuing reconciliation processes with the requirement for political leaders to uphold the promises they made before they were elected makes your argument rather mute.

Honesty amongs the chattering political classes is required, not subservience from the masses. Stability was as important two years ago as it is now.

To compare politicians expenses to wars is facile, but you started it.

[peterms]

...If we can give people who have (allegedly) ordered murders power in Ulster...

Ulster was founded on murder, disappropriation and theft. It's not a new thing.

[drat01]

It seems that again the Tory party are showing the same old traits. Why the hell do people think they would change?

The wonderful (not!) policy of schooling should be one that business can make profits from!! - Incredible

Michael Gove has no 'ideological objection' to firms making profits by running academy schools

The government has "no ideological objection" to businesses seeking profits from the new generation of academy schools and free schools, Michael Gove has said.

But the education secretary said his preference was for teachers and other experts to decide how to run and improve schools and said he expected most academies to be run as philanthropic projects.

"I am a Conservative, I do not have an ideological objection to businesses being involved but the professionals should make that decision," Gove told an audience of teachers at Hay Festival. "My view is that school improvement will be driven by professionals not profitmakers."

It is the first time Gove has publicly backed private companies profiting from running schools' services since he became education secretary and announced a major expansion of academies. Companies could profit from running schools using existing legislation which allows governing bodies to contract out the running of their school to a company that can charge a management fee. A handful of schools already operate under this model but in the last years of the Labour government it was not encouraged.

Several international school operators have invested in England in anticipation that the academy programme, particularly under the Tories, would open up a new market for them. In Sweden, where the Conservatives drew their inspiration for the free school model, the ability for school providers to profit is seen as crucial for getting new providers into the state system. It is deeply opposed by many of the teaching unions in the UK – and those on the left of Gove's Liberal Democrat coalition partners – but the Conservatives have become more receptive to the idea.

Under the management fee model, the school governing body remains not-for-profit but all the services – from teaching to school lunches and cleaning – can be run by private companies.

Citing an example of Havelock Academy in Grimsby, which is sponsored by the Conservative party donor David Ross, co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, Gove insisted all the groups his department was discussing about running academies were not-for-profit organisations.

Pressed on whether he would accept an academy or new "Swedish-style" free school run for profit, he said if teachers and parents in an area were clamouring for that option he would sit down and "have a cup of tea" with the business concerned.

Outlining the Conservatives' vision of dramatically extending the number of academy schools by switching the focus from failing schools to allowing schools judged "outstanding" by Ofsted to fast-track their move to academy status, the education secretary said the new academy schools would "be asked and expected to take under their wing an underperforming school" as part of their new status.

"We believe that the academy movement has been successful because improvement in education is driven by heads and teachers," he said.

"The most important thing you can do is raise the quality of experience that individual students have with their teacher."

Grilled by teachers in the audience over Ofsted's attempts to raise standards by downgrading many assessments of schools and teachers from "good" to "satisfactory", which has damaged morale in many schools, Gove admitted that "Ofsted needs radical reform".

"We need to change the way in which it works pretty comprehensively," he said. Gove also said there would be money for the Swedish-style free schools and insisted that they were not an expensive option. "Sweden introduced its reforms after a banking crisis and in the teeth of a recession in the 1990s," he said.

He said George Osborne, the chancellor, had ring-fenced education spending this year and had told Gove that his education budget would rise again next year. Gove also reassured the audience that the Tories would maintain Sure Start.

After the event, many of the teachers were critical of the new education secretary although slightly mollified by his promises to guard the education budget and protect Sure Start.

"The academy idea was a poor idea to begin with. Taking it from improving the worst schools to boosting the strongest is plain stupid," said Jenny Paterson, who is a secondary school teacher from Goole, Yorkshire.

As each day goes by another myth is busted in terms of these people changing.

[Gringo]

I had a bet on gove being the first resignatioin, ho hum.

[Ads]

I’m in favour of the idea.

[drat01]

Ooooh you actually have me interested - justify why you think its a good idea