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


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58 minutes ago, Xann said:

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Private Eye

EU scrutiny of our Global laundering empire and the flow of cash to tax light dependencies unwelcome.

The World's mega crooks and despots bank with us. We already provide the services they need.

Africa, Asia or Latin America might happen if that happy status quo is threatened?

 

Is there a low lit room with a shadowy overlord at the end of a table? Maybe not?

Are there lots of unscrupulous moneyed scum with shared objectives that exchange information and exert influence? Of course.

 

If that were the case, why would so much of the financial services establishment in London be pro-Remain?

Again, I accept all this stuff happens. Have at times found myself frustratingly close to it - offshore client chains, etc. There's a superb book on it called Moneyland, which is worth a read.

But in relation to Brexit it doesn't really tie together that well. One of the big benefits of London has always been the fact that it is in the EU. A Russian criminal gets a Cypriot passport, and then is allowed to live and work in the UK.

I'm more inclined to believe the conspiracy theories about Putin wanting to destabilise Europe post-Ukraine, as there was clear evidence of him interfering in the French election, as well as his contacts with people like Arron Banks, Lord Ashcroft, etc. Is it all a plan to protect financial interests? I'm not so sure, since there is always a new off-shore tax haven to exploit. The whole system worked pretty well for them even while the UK was in the EU, since the Channel Islands and Overseas Territories have always been somehow exempt from the rule of law.

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5 minutes ago, snowychap said:

My god this is an utter shambles of a Government.

Javid has been interrupted twice in his statement as he's rambling on about deal/no deal and not actually making a statement on the spending round.

 

It's quite something to be pining for the competent governance and commitment to parliamentary decency of Theresa May's Government.

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16 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

If that were the case, why would so much of the financial services establishment in London be pro-Remain?

They don't all operate in the same markets and levels of scrupulousness differ, obviously.

16 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

The whole system worked pretty well for them even while the UK was in the EU, since the Channel Islands and Overseas Territories have always been somehow exempt from the rule of law.

 

Quote

 

EU regulators have drawn up a preliminary plan for tightening rules to prevent money laundering after a series of high-level cases at the bloc’s banks.

The plan, prepared by a group of experts and set up by the European Commission, acknowledges that “there may be gaps in the EU’s supervisory framework” to counter money laundering. However, it pushed back any meaningful action to late next year or beyond.

 

The Times they are a changin.

 

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4 hours ago, Xann said:

They don't all operate in the same markets and levels of scrupulousness differ, obviously.

 

The Times they are a changin.

 

But the campaign for Brexit by people like Jacob Rees Mogg, Farage, etc. has been going for decades... don't get me wrong, I agree that a lot of these people want light-touch regulation, and want to hide their money from the tax man, and so on, and probably see their version of Brexit as a route towards that. But I think it's more of a longstanding, sincere, ideological objective, rather than the reactive "Brussels are about to take away our precious tax havens, hit the detonator!"

And on the other point re: different areas of financial services being exposed in different ways. True, but a lot of the pro-Remain institutions in the City are up to their knees in shit to be honest. Involvement in questionable financial activities doesn't split neatly down Leave/Remain lines. The City facilitates tax avoidance and money laundering on a vast scale, and much of that is by organisations that have been vociferously pro-Remain.

I just fret a bit about all the paranoia around illegal conspiracies, because it means you drift away from winning the basic policy arguments. The soundest argument in favour of Remain is surely that the referendum was quite close, and that given the age profile of the vote, one would expect a re-run today to lean towards Remain. I would throw it back to a second referendum. I think Remain would win. Forget about whether JRM is shorting the pound, and just focus on sorting out the mess.

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42 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Jacob Rees Mogg,

He wants financial deregulation like the Singapore model, except the City of London's links to the UK tax havens gives it the chance to become the undisputed finance capital of the World. 

Yet Singapore has zero social mobility, and we've found out that the only thing that trickles down from big money is urine. 

JRM also seems entirely unfazed with sacrificing entire industries to achieve his goals.

42 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I just fret a bit about all the paranoia around illegal conspiracies, because it means you drift away from winning the basic policy arguments. The soundest argument in favour of Remain is surely that the referendum was quite close, and that given the age profile of the vote, one would expect a re-run today to lean towards Remain. I would throw it back to a second referendum. I think Remain would win. Forget about whether JRM is shorting the pound, and just focus on sorting out the mess.

Fair enough. Though conspiracy doesn't seem to be a cornerstone of the Lab/Lib argument against No Deal Brexit.

I do think it's important to know what's motivating the recipient of your vote.

There is a Conspiracy thread btw  Everything in this thread is fact checked by @tonyh29 :)

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