Tories bankrolled by Non-Dom Lord

Mr.Brown_4

They are all at it. Ashcroft this week, Blunkett last week. And so on.

What's depressing me today is trying to find the enthusiasm to vote Tory. I've been trying out "Cameron and Osbourne - the dream team" and it doesn't quite convince me.

Don't get me wrong - I want to vote Tory, and I want Labour out, but I still feel I need a sliver of reason to give Dave and Geroge my votes. And I'm not sure I can do it.

treliac

Mr.Brown wrote: »

They are all at it. Ashcroft this week, Blunkett last week. And so on.

What's depressing me today is trying to find the enthusiasm to vote Tory. I've been trying out "Cameron and Osbourne - the dream team" and it doesn't quite convince me.

Don't get me wrong - I want to vote Tory, and I want Labour out, but I still feel I need a sliver of reason to give Dave and Geroge my votes. And I'm not sure I can do it.

The problem is one of too little choice.

treliac

Wookster wrote: »

I find it hilarious that Mandelson has spoken of "legitimacy", the man himself who was thrown out of cabinet not once, but twice for various nefarious doings.

I find him profoundly slimy and couldn't have the slightest feeling of trust in him, as politician or person.

baileysbattlebus

whathavewedone wrote: »

I don't think this is as big a deal as all that. In fact it might end up being one of those bad publicity stories which ends up working in favour of the party concerned - who would have thought that Brown would get a bounce from the bullying allegations?

It's often the phone in programmes that give the best insight into public opinion and I listened to one today. Very few people were bothered and those that were turned out to be union members/labour activists spitting feathers about the tories spending money in marginals. The nerve of them! Anyone would think they were trying to win an election...

It smacked of sour grapes and the vast majority of callers pretty much said so what, Labour and the Libdems are at it as well, everyone tries to minimise the tax they pay on savings etc, the guy gives a lot to charity.

One very notable thing about the phone in was how people thought Peter Mandelson was in no position to lecture anyone about financial impropriety.

If you want to make political capital out of something like this then you need clean hands and Labour do not have clean hands.

I understand that the tories are making freedom of information requests about Lord Paul today btw - there is a suspicion that he bought his peerage.

It's not financial impropriety - it's saying or declaring that you are going to do something (become a permanent UK resident) and then not.

The Guardian have published the letters up to and including the one Lord Ashcroft published on his website yesterday.

It's William Hague who actually addresses the reasons for refusal of a peerage -Lord Ascroft was refused twice, once in 1999 and again in 2000. One of the reasons for his refusal was that he was a tax exile - I guess he came under the 90 day rule.

In his undertaking to William Hague he promised to become a permanent UK resident by the end of the calendar year - 2000. It's 2010 and it still hasn't happened.

I doubt Lord Paul was daft enough to say "If I give you £20 will you give me a peerage" but you never know.

Link to the letters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/02/ashcroft-tax-correspondence

perplexed.com

Mr.Brown wrote: »

They are all at it. Ashcroft this week, Blunkett last week. And so on.

What's depressing me today is trying to find the enthusiasm to vote Tory. I've been trying out "Cameron and Osbourne - the dream team" and it doesn't quite convince me.

Don't get me wrong - I want to vote Tory, and I want Labour out, but I still feel I need a sliver of reason to give Dave and Geroge my votes. And I'm not sure I can do it.

Lib dems? I'll be voting SNP :rotfl:

Butterfly_Brain

If they don't pay tax here they shouldn't have the right to sit in parliament

Spartacus_Mills

blueboy43 wrote: »

Oh, thats alright then. I look forward to being wilfully misdirected for the next 5 years.

You should be used to it after the last 13 years.

Or are you happy to be "wilfully misdirected" by Labour and the Lib Dems and only froth at the mouth when it is the Tories doing it.

Spartacus_Mills

Wookster wrote: »

Here we have the mouthpiece of the Labour Party.

I love how rochdale, snakely says you can't compare Tory party non-doms to Labour non-doms, what utter utter tripe (never mind that Labour benefited more from Non-Dom donations than the Tories) and that really shows just how desperate the mouthpiece of the Labour party is.

Go back to that rock from whence you came rochdale.

Shouldn't that be Rockdale ?

Let's face it the Labour supporters were always going to try to make hay over this and squeal like pigs when the hypocrisy of their own party was exposed.

Let's not forget it was a sitting Labour PM who was interviewed by the Police over the cash for honours scandal. Just because the matter was dropped does not mean the party were innocent, it merely means there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction.

Let us also not forget Labour took a backhander from Bernie Ecclestone (donation to party funds) to exempt F1 from the tobacco advertising ban.

They are as venal and self-serving, if not more so, than the Tories. That is not a function of them being worse than the Tories. I think they are equally contemptible. It is a function of them being in power for so long.

I thought this a good article on the matter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/01/michael-ashcroft-tax-non-dom

Spartacus_Mills

Labour Non-Dom hypocrisy volume 1

http://order-order.com/2010/03/02/non-dom-donations-hypocrisy/

Since 2001 Ashcroft has given £5,160,915 to the Tories and Labour’s troika of of non-dom donors, Mittal, Cohen and Paul have given £6,734,250. Mittal bought a bit of corporate lobbying for his £4 million. Tony Blair lobbied for Mittal’s business interests when he was still Prime Minister…
Source data from the Electoral Commission.

Labour Non-Dom hypocrisy volume 2

http://order-order.com/2010/03/02/billionaire-expense-claims-compared/

A Guido co-conspirator in the comments points out that between 2001 -2008 Lord Ashcroft attended parliament 285 times at a total cost to the taxpayer of £0.00 in expenses, with an average cost of £0.00.
During the same period Lord Swarj Paul attended parliament 1047 times at a cost to the taxpayer of £281,263 in expenses. The average cost per visit was £268.64 and in 2008/9 this jumped to £405.58 per visit.

While Lord Ashcroft was setting up the extremely successful Crimestoppers organisation, Lord Paul was raiding the pension funds of hardworking British steel workers.

Still the reply from the Labour supporters here is reminiscent of Pavlov's dogs. Tories Bad, Labour Good, Ignore the facts.

Bark, doggies, bark.

blueboy43

Spartacus_Mills wrote: »

You should be used to it after the last 13 years.

Or are you happy to be "wilfully misdirected" by Labour and the Lib Dems and only froth at the mouth when it is the Tories doing it.

You just don't get it do you.

The best line the Tories can come up with is that "we are just as bad as Labour". Its pathetic, and in the end will result in people turning to more extreme parties like the BNP.

I've a decent sized spread bet having bought the total number of Tory seats at 332 so your constant carping of "Labour frothers" is laughable.

It appears from this mornings papers that William Hague was either duped or turned a blind eye to this.

What the Tories should have realised on this issue is that they cannot win. The Times for example will be solidly behind the Tories but having past been sued by Ashcroft will not let this issue lie. He also seems, despite his very generous donations to Crimestoppers & the Imperial War Museum, to be utterly loathed by many journalists, Labour MPs and a sprinkling of Tory MP's.

Maybe you should look in the mirror when you start ranting about "frothers".
After all, it is you who is material from Guido Fawkes site.