The banker loving, baby-eating Tory party thread (regenerated)

[foreveryoung]

10 hours ago, Genie said:

I do wonder why politicians use Twitter now. Every time they post something it acts as a nice big board for people to make all the other people aware of the kind of person you are. Comments are always 99% negative towards the tweeter.

This one was a good reply.

 

Nice reply

 

[sidcow]

On 16/01/2023 at 18:47, Mark Albrighton said:

Guardian link

 

Weirdly no mention of it on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64304132

Nadhim Zahawi facing questions about tax payment

Quote

Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has not denied a report he has agreed to pay millions of pounds in tax to settle a dispute with Revenue and Customs.

It comes after the Sun on Sunday claimed Mr Zahawi's representatives would pay a "seven-figure sum" to HMRC.

BBC News has not been able to verify the Sun story but a representative for Mr Zahawi did not issue a denial when asked if it was true.

His tax affairs "were and are fully up to date and paid in the UK", they said.

Quote

Labour says Mr Zahawi, who now chairs the Conservative Party, has "serious questions" to answer about his tax affairs.

The questions centre on whether Mr Zahawi tried to avoid paying tax by using an offshore company to hold shares in polling company YouGov.

The minister, who has a personal fortune estimated at up to £100m, co-founded YouGov in 2000, before he entered politics.

At the time, his co-founder was given just over 40% of the shares in the company.

Unusually, Mr Zahawi did not take any shares himself. However, a similar size shareholding was allocated to Balshore Investments Ltd, based in Gibraltar.

Quote

BBC News asked Mr Zahawi's spokesman whether any sum had been paid, or was planned to be paid, by Mr Zahawi, or a representative, to HMRC - but he declined to comment.

It also asked whether any such sum had been to settle a tax matter identified by HMRC and whether that had been in relation to YouGov but did not receive an answer.

Reacting to the reports about a payment to HMRC, Anneliese Dodds, who chairs the Labour Party, said: "If true, this is another nail in the coffin of the honesty, integrity and accountability promised by Rishi Sunak.

"Not for the first time, Rishi Sunak's judgement has been called into serious question. The question remains is he strong enough to sack Nadhim Zahawi?"

 

[Mark Albrighton]

12 minutes ago, sidcow said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64304132

Nadhim Zahawi facing questions about tax payment

 

My suspicion is the beeb have decided to finally go with the story in order to try and distract people from the porn ring tone prank from tonight’s Wolves-Liverpool game.

[Davkaus]

It's somewhat understandable that a story critical of the government requires days of fact checking before publishing. A far cry from Laura K unquestionably spreading government propaganda from unnamed sources

[LondonLax]

6 hours ago, Davkaus said:

It's somewhat understandable that a story critical of the government requires days of fact checking before publishing. A far cry from Laura K unquestionably spreading government propaganda from unnamed sources

Yes, that’s what I got from this bit:

Quote

BBC News has not been able to verify the Sun story but a representative for Mr Zahawi did not issue a denial when asked if it was true.

They have struggled to get a source to run the story on. 

[Genie]

8 hours ago, sidcow said:

His tax affairs "were and are fully up to date and paid in the UK", they said.

This line really boils my piss. 
Yeah he got caught but he’s paid it now so no harm done.

I’ll try that shall I when I get caught robbing a bank? “I gave the money back to the bank once I was apprehended so all is well”.

[chrisp65]

8 hours ago, Davkaus said:

It's somewhat understandable that a story critical of the government requires days of fact checking before publishing. A far cry from Laura K unquestionably spreading government propaganda from unnamed sources

We’ve come a long way, we’ve recently had a journalist criticised here on VT for ambushing the PM with a question that wasn’t in the agreed script.

It appears the BBC has been largely released from any responsibility to investigate. They just sit by their phones waiting for crumbs from the special advisors that they can read out to us. Radio 4’s idea of a morning news programme is now Nick Robinson reading out extracts from the Telegraph that he’s found interesting or amusing.

 

[blandy]

Genuine question. The Sun newspaper ran a story alleging things re zahawi’s tax affairs. Now I have a notion that tabloid “obtaining exclusives” methods are probably not wholly ethical, nor compliant with certain legal standards (for example around data protection, or around paying HMG employees for illicit copies of tax records etc.). My question is this: Which other broadcasters or media outlets also didn’t immediately cover the “story”. ITV. Sky. Channel 4.? Is it the case that uniquely, the BBC waited before publishing mention of the allegations, or was other comparable media also cautious?

 

[OutByEaster?]

It's got super injunction written all over it.

[Genie]

8 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

It's got super injunction written all over it.

Yep, all the more reason for the serious questions to be asked.

Then sacking, and criminal investigation.

[LondonLax]

22 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

It's got super injunction written all over it.

Or it’s just a case of journalistic ethics from broadsheet media? i.e. not running a story on a second hand account? 

[OutByEaster?]

6 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

Or it’s just a case of journalistic ethics from broadsheet media? i.e. not running a story on a second hand account? 

It'd be nice to think that, but the standard model is that they report that the Sun is reporting it - the safety net for them is saying the news is "look what the Sun is reporting" rather than the news being "Zahawi has done this". 

[LondonLax]

4 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

It'd be nice to think that, but the standard model is that they report that the Sun is reporting it - the safety net for them is saying the news is "look what the Sun is reporting" rather than the news being "Zahawi has done this". 

Well that’s what they are reporting that aren’t they?

[bickster]

2 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

We’ve come a long way, we’ve recently had a journalist criticised here on VT for ambushing the PM with a question that wasn’t in the agreed script.

It appears the BBC has been largely released from any responsibility to investigate. They just sit by their phones waiting for crumbs from the special advisors that they can read out to us. Radio 4’s idea of a morning news programme is now Nick Robinson reading out extracts from the Telegraph that he’s found interesting or amusing.

 

Different things. One is an interview, the other is a story. And the journalist wasn't criticised either, no one said he shouldn't have asked the question (apart from on the grounds that the question was a stupid premise in the first place)

[Genie]

The reason the Sunak interview in Scotland was so awkward was because he repeatedly refused to answer a question asked of him, easily avoided if he was honest and transparent.

[sidcow]

To be fair, when BBC was getting stick on here about it, I looked at other news sources and almost non were running with it.  Lot's are today.

[foreveryoung]

Cracks me up how they have no idea of the real world. More examples, Zahawi just pays his 3 million tax bill like its a general bill, then previously Sunaks wife pays 12 million in owed tax like its a slight inconvenience. But ofcourse they understand how nurses have to go to food banks and families can't even afford electricity needed to treat there terminally ill children. 

Is there was anymore proof needed that this government favours the rich. 

[Genie]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

Cracks me up how they have no idea of the real world. More examples, Zahawi just pays his 3 million tax bill like its a general bill, then previously Sunaks wife pays 12 million in owed tax like its a slight inconvenience. But ofcourse they understand how nurses have to go to food banks and families can't even afford electricity needed to treat there terminally ill children. 

Is there was anymore proof needed that this government favours the rich. 

Not sure about the last line, but it’s certainly apparent this government are out of touch with vast majority of the nation.

[foreveryoung]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

Not sure about the last line, but it’s certainly apparent this government are out of touch with vast majority of the nation.

Sunak just riles me. The way he speaks, his persona, how uncomfortable he looks speaking to working class people, even Directors of companies aren't good enough. He understands nothing of what people are going through. He's like the little posh boy at school who gets everything he wants when he wants and has no real friends apart from the teachers, an they secretly despise him too.

[blandy]

On 15/01/2023 at 15:56, chrisp65 said:

If you’re so thick or self obsessed or poorly advised that you go to Scotland and can’t answer a very simple question on this being a voluntary union of equals then you’re not fit for the job.

Sorry to come back to this, but I'm not sure you're right, really on the bolded part. Apologies for not being too up on my history, but I kind of assumed that while (I guess) the various parts of the UK voluntarily agreed to be a Union, it was then turned int an act of Parliament and Law, so that for it to be undone it's a little more complex than "we (e.g. Scotland) don't wanna be part of it anymore" - Parliament would have to vote on it, or consent in some way. The other thing, I perceive, is that it's not a Union of equals - I mean if England said "we don't wanna be part of it anymore" then the impact would be more significant than if any of the other parts wanted to "leave", through pure size and contributions into the pot. It's more unlikely that England would say that, than Scotland or Wales I'd imagine, for all sorts of reasons, particularly with a Tory government.